(Melodic Death Metal) [CD] The Duskfall - Where The Tree Stands Dead - 2014, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

I'm sure that most people would find The Duskfall very uninspiring and perhaps even boring, but for someone like me there are some very enjoyable things about their newest release, titled Where the Tree Stands Dead. I wish that the band provided more consistency throughout their latest release, but let's take the positives away from this rather than the negatives. This is a band that only reformed the year this was released after all, and only one of the band's original lineup remained from when they split up in 2008. The chances of this being one of the best albums of all-time were naught before they'd even sat down and started penning this stuff.
Gothenburg metal is a 'love it or hate it' kind of thing, so for those that aren't fans of the style this will not appeal. Where the Tree Stands Dead might not appeal to fans of other types of melodeath either, because it lacks the keyboards used in many great melodic death metal acts and there are a lot of moments where the music threatens to become some kind of metalcore or hard rock. Yep, this is definitely an acquired taste. One that I can appreciate at some points of the album, but not at others. It's a bit of a roller-coaster ride, and that isn't a great thing when it's meant in this sense.
Let's start with the things that I liked: as per usual, it's the leads during the choruses and the solos that really do the business. For the most part the riffing during the verses provide nothing of interest and they're not exactly what I'd call captivating. The only reason I stuck around on tracks like Endgame was to hear what the band would come up with when it came to the solos. But I'll tell you something, when it finally gets there it really is worth the wait. It isn't the kind of anti-climatic section of sheer boredom that you'll sometimes get, and the only issue I have with it is that those sections don't take up more of the total run-time.
Unfortunately, that's about all there is to say on the good side. The drumming is slow and pretty boring, much like most of the verses on the guitar. The difference? The drums never kick it up an extra gear and make you reconsider the bad points. There isn't so much as one sequence of blast beats to spice things up, it's all just rhythmical plodding.
The vocals are also worth a bit of bashing, but also some praise. The screams are all really shit to be perfectly frank, apart from when he really sounds like he's putting emotion into it (for whatever reason). As for the cleans, they're a bit of a confusing business. At times they sound great and I can really appreciate that the guy has some talent (even if he's using it incorrectly with the unclean vocals). But then there are an equal number of times where the singing sounds so poor that you have to ask who put him in charge of doing them, and it really counteracts any positive feeling that I'd previously had from listening to the good bits. Once again, the band could do with cutting out the bad parts that sadly make up the majority of the music.
That's all I have to say on the matter. There are some really good things across this album, most notably the title-track and Farewell, and every single song seems to have something good about it. If there weren't so many things about Where the Tree Stands Dead then I would really have some high-praise for The Duskfall, but alas that is not the case.
Review by PorcupineOfDoom, metal-archives.com

Mikael Sandorf Guitars
Jonatan Storm Bass
Fredrik Andersson Drums
Ronny Edlund Guitars
Magnus Klavborn Vocals