RandomWalk - Absolution

     Residing in Greece, these Athenians are to release their second album soon enough. RandomWalk (RW) is yet another band being part of the quite selective “I for an I Records and Media” - not one of the label’s bands is even close to mediocrity. Concerning RW, they present one hell of an idiosyncratic genre mixture, while standing firm on each subgenre’s fundaments.

     Despite featuring 11 compositions, Absolution is not a breed of hastiness. The opening compositions (the instrumental intro, Descent, and The Light) are actually representative of the album as a whole : the symphonic ambience, the aggressiveness blasting off, respectively. Absolution ‘s structure features two major axis;the first and vital one is the aggressive riffing. The album’s riffology certainly flirts with hardcore roots (The Light, The Well, The Maker’s Way definitelyexemplify this), and on this soil, the other axis flourishes : this above mentioned aggressiveness is romanticized;goth influences pop up one after another, and the thing is, this goth perspective regards not the very riffing, nor the composing process itself (e.g. the existence of keyboards with the relative use of them and/or the vocal lines), but, a different, much wider understanding is required. It’s the atmosphere extracted, the image, the stalking lyricism that render this release gothic. As such, mainstream parts are additionally spottable. ( Night In Gale ‘s opening part is an illustrative one).

     Technically, the band offers not more than necessary. On the guitars,  Vortimer’s clever riffing serves headbanging, always bearing in mind that melody matters, too –solos are absent (one of the combinations to support this, is The Light ‘sfierce opening and melodic refrain). The keyboards (Dorian) are constant and reinforce the tenacity in between the instruments;few are the times that their role is less than important (there are parts when violin tunes are also heard, - e.g. Hourglass). On the contrary, the bass lines (Absinthe Green) actually only supplement the composition. They do not stand out enough, (in terms of the bass lines’ quality, not in terms of volume) however the bass is often exploited (e.g. Promises 2:45). The drums performance (Harry Mason) is rather on the edge between a hardcore playing and a more humble one;it’s a plus. Finally, Jean Baptist ’s performance on the vocals is quite impressive. His vocal width aside (both brutal -rather aggressive- and clean vocals are stable technically and he has actually mastered their in between alternation and balance), he is a performer caring for the content of his singing: he is interpreting the lyrics (his articulation is crystal clear too), he is not spouting random words, he accesses his own emotions, in an endeavor to resonate with the listener’s ones. His singing extracts a medieval (the word fairly used!), goth/ vampyric touch (this applies on his cleaner singing mostly, but not exclusively). Female vocals also occur at times (I guess Absinthe Green is in charge of those).

     As mentioned above, RW’s lyrics are reinforcements to the goth front. Considering the technique, the metrics are well structured, with no irritating repetition of same words or rhymes already used; In general terms, although none is astonished from the lyrical view of this band, the effort/result is praisable, nevertheless. As for the concept, this focuses on questions, quests, relationships (of many types; God included). The lyrics actually depict situations (unpleasant ones), are descriptions of state of mind/ soul. Nothing new actually, but there is a psychological/ existentialistic dimension going on too, which is, of course , notable.

     It should be mentioned that Absolution has flat/mediocre parts too (e.g. I consider Hourglass a filler song, as it actually only repeats what all others songs have already been through). However, the atmosphere of this album, the approach in whole is solid enough to repel the cons. Conclusively, this release is complete. Romanticized hardcore, that is. And if the sound of it is not to your liking, try gothic aggressiveness; a promising band.

Stelios(Ω)  9/10