Existence Depraved: Unwalked Path

Delivering their second single since starting their path as a legitimate band as opposed to just a side project for Crystalic's Toni Tieaho, Existence Depraved have dropped a pretty interesting mission statement with "Unwalked Path". It's an energetic romp that blends melodic death metal with some dark, chunky power metal. Think Control Denied with a nice backdrop of subtle keyboards to fill everything out.

As this song throws quite a few ideas out there, we have some hits and misses as one would expect. The verse sections with their propulsive riffs and backing vocals are great, and feature some really well done complimentary keyboard work. The chugging, tough guy posturing that follows these bits aren't quite as successful and personally I'd prefer the song had they just left them out. There's also death metal growls a plenty at times, usually used in tandem with what I can only describe as a "polarizing" clean voice that's also used throughout the song. Tiaeho's voice is without a doubt the thing that will be the point of contention here for most people.

It's difficult to actually explain what he sounds like on here. I suppose the best I can do is that he sounds like he's wincing as hard as he possibly can while trying to force out a combo of Dave Mustaine's snarl and a more traditional epic/power metal croon. It's not exactly great, but he's clearly putting his ass into it, so to speak.

As the song moves along, we reach a clean guitar section with some spoken word stuff going on. Anyone familiar with earlier Iced Earth will know exactly what to expect here, and directly after that we get a pretty damn nice solo section with harmonized guitars and blistering kick drums. The highlight of the track for sure, aside from the really nicely done keyboard outro. The keys are the secret sauce elevates this otherwise workmanlike song into something a little more melodic and Finnish.

So, peculiar vocal delivery aside, "Unwalked Path" is a neat song and one to check out. It brings quite a few ideas to the table and if they can focus on what they do well in the future, I see a lot of potential here. They are apparently hard at work on their debut album right now, and I'd happily give that one a spin to see what they have cooking once it's released.

Tracklist:
1. Unwalked Path

Added: March 9th 2021
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 618
Language: english

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