VALE OF PNATH – II

Denver’s Vale Of Pnath have waited five years to put out their second album, and it shows: the tech-death band has their sound nailed here. The 39 minutes of II rage past in an extremely technical blur, the band very skilled at both grinding swirling death metal and more spaced out, more progressive terrain; see opener “Blacker Than” for a pretty good summary of all that is to come. Vale Of Pnath have a leg up on their tech-death peers through their classy guitar solos and mastery of subtle melody, which is all over the place here. And although this subgenre can get tiresome very fast, Vale Of Pnath have enough of a grasp of brevity and energy to keep things lively; see the 3:33 “A Nightmare Phantasm”, which shows off enough solid drum and guitar work to impress but still gets in and out fast, which is smart. 

Later in the album, “Heart Of Darkness” is about as solid and enjoyable as tech-death gets; this is very good stuff, and if you’re left feeling like you need a bit more extremity after listening to Obscura’s latest, pop this one in. It’s not going to disappoint, and it just might be the best technical death metal album you hear all year, thanks to the non-stifling production and the feeling of rejuvenation, not exhaustion, that’s all over these songs, particularly cool closer “Unburied”, which brings classic trad metal dramatics to the land of tech DM with much success.