Posthuman – Rise from Ruins (2010)

Being huge fans of Melodic Death Metal bands we always love when we receive an album of this genre. Posthuman recently sent us their latest release titles “Rise from Ruins” featuring 10 songs and around 45 minutes of very interesting and creative Melodic Death Metal music.

Featuring a very complex sound, the band is out to make a name for themselves in the very crowded Melodic Death Metal scene. Combining the traditional MDM elements with some Electronic/’futuristic keyboards’ hints and even some Progressive Metal elements, Posthuman has a very unique sound that will surely turn heads of quite a few people.

Starting off, the male grunts are very solid a big must for MDM. The clean vocals on the other side sound a bit weak, taking a bit of time to get used to them and either bear with them, or enjoy them. While we like this clean/grunts approach, but we do think that the band’s need to be sure of their clean vocalist abilities to actually sing well.

The band’s strength is the combination of ‘futuristic keyboards’ with the well crafted melodies created by the guitars. Sometimes it sounds very tight, but other times, especially when the keyboard are alone (like on “End my Trail”), they sound like a kid playing around with a MIDI keyboard. However, it’s not as bad, and it actually gives the band a unique sound when compared to bands that use Synths way too much making their music sound like the score of a Star Wars movie.

As far as melody is concerned, the band creates very cool sections such as the beginning of [2108 pt. 2] Truce. We especially love this about Posthuman, since most bands of the genre these days are focused in seeing who can play the fastest instead of focusing on creating catchy melodies. The drumming and bass guitar are both very solid, creating a very good backdrop from where the songs take shape.

In general, “Rise from Ruins” is actually a very well crafted release. We notice some small issue with the mixing, since you can hear the movie/news samples way to loud. Also the keyboards sound mixed a bit high, but not terribly high that they block the rest of the instruments. Small issues aside, if you are looking for a catchy Melodic Death Metal release that is more traditional than the guitar acrobatics released by bands like Scar Symmetry, you should get “Rise from Ruins” since it’s a very catchy and melodic album.

Release: June 10th, 2010

Country: Netherlands