The Breathing Process - Odyssey (Un)Dead

Those of you who’ve heard The Breathing Process’ debut recording “In Waking: Divinity” will know exactly what to expect from their sophomore work “Odyssey (Un)Dead” since it doesn’t deflect that much from its predecessor.
For newcomers to the Connecticut’s six-piece sound, I guess it’s easy to be fooled by initial listens and mistake them for a symphonic black-metal band given the amount of glossy keyboard atmospherics, mechanical blast-beats and agonized screams that pours from the first two songs, namely “Grimoir” and “Leveler”. But listen carefully and you’ll discover other influences at display, their technical guitar chugging for instance betrays their death-core origins and it’s fair to assume it’s the cervical spine of their whole sonority. The band do dabble with symphonic black-metal mostly due to the heavy presence of keyboards, which places them close to some European acts like Dimmu Borgir and Emperor on some occasions, yet even in these moments the band fails to create a genuinely scary and epic ambience. For the most of “Odyssey”, The Breathing Process sound way too clinical and mechanical for my own taste, like a tedious and technical black/death-metal with atmospheric leanings. When they attempt to expand their sonority and venture into other musical territories as in “Vultures” and “Pantheon Unraveling”, trying to adorn their brutal and technical approach with a more emotional and mournful feel, the results are just dreadful and constrained. It sounds like a hasty jam session between Evanescence and Bleeding Through.
If you dig bands like Bleeding Through, Winds of Plague and Abigail Williams you’ll probably fall in love with The Breathing Process too, but you aim at higher standards perhaps you should clean the dust of those Emperor and Limbonic Art records or give acts like Belphegor and Vesania a chance. (5/10)

David Alexandre

Band info: www.myspace.com/tbp
Label info: www.siegeofamida.net