A Consequence of Design by Epicurean (CD, Mar-2008, Metal Blade)

Minneapolis band Epicurean originally recorded A Consequence Of Design back in 2004 and, on signing with Metal Blade, remixed and re-mastered the album in addition to recording a couple of extra songs , which all adds up to this current release.

The label mentions that Epicurean have a Euro-metal element to their sound, and whilst this is indeed noticeable, and it's a statement that holds true for a lot of the current American metal bands, this European influence is all mixed up with elements of both a death metal sound and even a progressive side. The result is an album that at times, especially at the start, has strong similarities to bands like All That Remains while several of the songs, ‘Behind The Chapel Walls’ and ‘Lithograph’, to name just two, sound like they could have come from Sonic Syndicate.

The songs are generally death metal orientated with the keyboards and guitars complementing each other with singer John Laramy’s rough vocals over the top. Most of the songs make the move to and from more melodic moments with good hooks and the switch to cleaner singing working well. The songs are long however and contain many instrumental moments with the obligatory solos and, whilst most of this proves to be good, the downside is that, given their length and the album running time of 64 minutes, some of the music can feel a bit repetitive. Possibly the newly recorded tracks were unnecessary and a more trimmed down version would have worked better.

The band though are certainly good musicians though and easily cover the multitude of styles on the album, the consequence (pardon the pun) of course is that this all ends delivering some mixed results. ‘Illumination’ for example ignores the addition of any melodic moments and goes for the jugular throughout, thus giving rise to arguably the worst track on the CD. On the flip side however, and given the heaviness of much of the rest of the album, ‘Of Malice And Majesty’ surprisingly introduces some noticeable and unexpected hard rock guitars and solos. These are actually scattered throughout the album and they probably work best on ‘Anathema and The Gate Keeper’ which, thanks to it’s keyboard led start and slower approach, helps to give a different element to the album.

There are several bands that try to blend the American and Scandinavian metal scenes together, and doubtless there will be more, however on A Consequence Of Design, Epicurean have shown that they can write songs to rival most and are certainly a band to watch out for in the future.