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Dutch melodic death metalers POSTHUMAN formed in 2007 and received great praise for their 2008 demo Into The Void. Their combination of thrash, progressive and death metal is a powerful blend of melody and aggression.
On their self-released debut album Rise From Ruins, the band utilize different musical elements. They aren’t afraid to try different things to change the ambiance and mood by adding some symphonic proponents by way of orchestral samples and keyboard nuances. The music is heavy and the guitars are fast. There’s good double kick drumming throughout the record and the clean vocals mixed with background death grunts give variation to the songs.
POSTHUMAN partly walk the same path as IN FLAMES, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, SCAR SYMMETRY and SOILWORK, but they are more heavier and experimental within the melodic death metal formula.
For instance, their odd use of keyboards on (“2108 pt. 1) World in Flames” is strange but pleasing. They also bring out a 17-headed grunt choir on “Ashes to Ashes” that is pure death metal grunting with keyboard accents added for atmosphere. “End Of My Trail” opens with a rhythmic tom-tom beat that is soon joined by a traditional melodic harmonized double guitar lead.
With 10 songs and a total of 44 minutes, there’s not really a dud amongst the bunch. Just enough time passes that makes you want to hit the replay button after the last song.
Rise From Ruins is a great first effort from POSTHUMAN. There’s plenty of variation and aggression, and just enough melody in a progressive way.
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