The Absence
Riders of the Plague
Metal Blade
Not cloning around anymore
Is this the same band that made From Your Grave? The “absence” on their 2005 full-length debut could have referred to originality; the title could have referred to At the Gates. Basically, the band took Gothenburg melodic death metal and transplanted it with kid glove care to Tampa, FL. All the clichés were there—melodic riffs, meticulous harmonies, midrange rasp cribbed from Lindberg and Stanne. While drill sergeant Erik Rutan squeezed strong performances from the band, they didn’t sell songs, but a sound.
The gloves are off with a vengeance on Riders of the Plague. Occasionally, the band slips into Gothen-autopilot, but as a whole, the record is darker and more diverse. Instead of mining the same old minor scales, songs cycle through colorful chords now. The melodies, too, are more measured and emotional. Some moments recall Arch Enemy or Amon Amarth; others come from nowhere, like the WTF Steve Vai-esque shredding in “World Divides.” Neither the choppy syncopations of “The Murder” nor the subtle polyrhythms of “Prosperity” could have occurred before. “Echos” [sic] dusts off an old school “hey” chant, even the rimshots sound badass (“Merciless”), and hang on to your jaw as a spot-on cover of Testament’s “Into the Pit” barrels out of the speakers. With the help of some fleet-fingered friends (Scar Symmetry’s Jonas Kjellgren and Per Nilsson, Aghora’s Santiago Dobles and the ubiquitous James Murphy), this is an older, wiser Absence. —Cosmo Lee
