(Technical/Melodic Death/Thrash Metal) Node - Sweatshops [Reissued 2010] - 2002, FLAC (image+.cue) lossless

Good melodic death/thrash - 87%
Written by CHRISTI_NS_ANITY8 on May 2nd, 2009
Node is a quite technical death/thrash metal band from Milan. Sweatshop is their second album, after the rare Technical Crime that was recently re-released. To be frank, I’ve never really got in their style because I prefer simpler stuff even if I must admit that they are technically prepared and good at this style. Well, they are also good at composing quite direct stuff and sometimes their style can be compared to the Swedish one for sounds and style and so it is for this second effort.
This Sweatshop begins with the grooving and melodic hint of “History Seeds”. The production is clean and the guitars are the strongest component. After a quite long mid-paced introduction, the tempo increases its speed and the riffs turn to be faster too. The melodic touch never fades away and lots of times we fall into a quite classic melodic death metal style. The vocals are quite screamed and also this completes the melodic death metal scenario. By the way, the melodic overtures are not cheesy and excessively melodic because there are no clean vocals and no electronic parts and this is a thing that I appreciate a lot.
“Jerry Mander” follows the same style more or less. The guitars are good at the riffs because they can quickly change styles and this includes death, thrash, groove and melodic death. The vocals are a bit more in deathcore style and also the stop and go are a bit more present. The melodic sections are very good and they break a bit the violence of the other parts and they also include the harmonious solo fragments. The Sound of Perseverance influences on the following “Sacristan’ Scorn Towards Water” are evident and they come out both for the rhythmic and the solo parts. There are a few more melodic vocal parts but nothing excessive and, most of all, annoying.
“Bloody Hills” prefers again the mid-tempo, like it was for the song before. The groove is more present and the various guitars duets are very good to give variety when the song risks falling a bit in the structures. The vocals are always aggressive while we come across that great acoustic section by the middle that announces the melodic solo. “Behaviours” features a good drums work for the continue rolls and also the guitars are excellent for the duets. The tempo is again mostly mid-paced but never boring also because the structures are strong even if this time a more modern approach is evident. This can be found for the guitars and for a few grooving passages.
“Last Doctor” gives more power to the sound and brings in a quite dark touch. Here the death metal spores are quite strong even if we never exceed and the quite epic vocal touch of some parts is the classic example of this. Even the guitars always hide a touch of grooving melody inside and that’s excellent. “No Title, No Bible” returns to the groove with the dissonant touch of the riffs and again the modern touch is far more present. The variety of the drumming is remarkable and the solo section marks the return for less dark parts. “Thanathophobia” has a pissed-off march even if this time the new era-Darkane influences are stronger, both for the instrumental and vocal parts.
The last “The Plot Thickens” features a quite melodic style to end this album. The clean arpeggios are excellent in their dark and melodic approach and we needed that after this quite heavy album. Sweatshop is a good modern melodic death/thrash album by a band worth checking out if you like this style.

Daniel Botti - Vocals, Guitars
Gary D'Eramo - Guitars, Vocals
Klaus Mariani - Bass
Mario Giannini - Drums