© Nightmare Records 2001
ANTITHESIS
Dying For Life
The 80s are truly back in 2001. Many bands have been incorporating 80s influences into their music for the past several years. The two most notable throwback paths are the Power/True Metal style and the Blackened Retrothrash subgenre. Although I definitely welcome the current desire to pay tribute to the plethora of excellent metal bands of the 80s, I have been disappointed with the quality of these newer bands. As I have often mentioned, the Europower scene does very little for me overall. I like some of the newer thrashy Death Metal bands, but they don't hold a candle to the Thrash acts of the late 80s and early 90s. Then came 2001... ONWARD released Evermoving, my all-time favorite guitar hero Power Metal disc. KREATOR and DESTRUCTION at least partially returned to form, and ANTITHESIS released a surprisingly awesome and diverse slab of thrashy American Power Metal.Dying for Life is medicine for the souls of all metal veterans such as myself who are fans of classic Power Metal and Thrash groups like METAL CHURCH, FORBIDDEN, HELSTAR, and SANCTUARY. Heck, even the cheesy CD cover looks like something straight out of 1987. It took me some time to get the new disc by ANTITHESIS because I was not overly impressed with their self-titled debut. It definitely has great moments, but it is often let down by weak choruses and less than inspired music. Upon hearing Dying for Life, I was rewarded with what is a dramatic improvement on all musical fronts. The guitarwork of Sean Perry and Paul Konjicija is excellent and often reminds me of the great harmonizing, leads, and crunch of early FORBIDDEN. The bass guitar, courtesy of James Lewis, is not as in your face, but it definitely adds a lot to the slower, more melodic tunes. Paul Kostyack's drumming also enhances my enjoyment of each tune through the utilization of plenty of diverse beats and fills as well as kick ass double bass thumping. The vocals of Ty Cook are simply wonderful. He is easily one of my current favorite vocalists. I listen to a lot of Death Metal so it is very refreshing to hear someone that can actually sing. He has just the right mix of aggression and refinement.
All nine tracks on Dying for Life are quite engaging. There are no fillers on this disc. The appeal of the CD is heightened by the diversity of tempos and moods of the different songs. My favorites are probably "Soul of Ice" and "Consequence" when ANTITHESIS is at their fastest and thrashiest. However, I also really enjoy their midpaced numbers such as "Deceiver Within". Several songs contain some beautiful acoustic sections as well. Some progressive elements such as odd time signatures and complex riffing crop up in several songs. According to their webpage , "Antithesis strives to perfect and solidify their niche of progressive power metal with a definite desire to crossover into the progressive/technical metal genre..." I love truly Progressive and Technical Metal, so I strongly encourage ANTITHESIS to keep striving towards their goals. They definitely have the skill to create even better and more challenging material. I just hope they don't lose the thrashiness, diversity, or 80s feel in the process. There are so many elements of their sound that I love, and I want to hear them all!
Contributed by John Frank
