Dukatalon: Saved By Fear

The words I am going to use to describe this album are not going to do it justice. Nail your feet to the floor; this is bone crushing sonic mayhem at its best.

Israel's Zafrir Zori (vocals and guitar), Lior Mayer (bass), and Yariv Shilo (drums) have created a heavy sludge metal album that features the inimitable power and somewhat fuzzy guitar tones, powerful and sometimes complex drumming, brash bass tones and harsh vocals, which do not disappoint.

The band move through the slow and mid tempo numbers throughout, throwing in a curve ball, the title track "Saved By Fear" which offers respite, featuring a nice melodic acoustic passage something you would not expect from an album of this genre, before the band moved back into tougher territory. Zori just litters the whole album with his harsh towering dirty guitar chords, a wall of noise that is fully supported by his cohorts, layered by some nice lead work. Mayer and Shilo as a backing line are not messing about here, they know what they need to do, failure is not acceptable and they know that.

The amazing thing about the album is that the engineer has managed to capture the utter raw power of the band from the studio and delivered it to my HI FI sonically perfect. "Run" is a skull crushing inferno of power that shook the foundations of my house, "ZX" offers no salvation. "Vagabond" a misnomer if I ever saw one, as it doesn't so much drift, it knows its direction and make no mistake its going there and you ain't stopping it. Mayer' pulsating bass really controls "Electric Site" as Zori Powerchords around it, being the longest track on the album, a steady mid tempo song which kicks the doors wide open for the penultimate track "Gate Of Mind". "Gate Of Mind" switches gear, crashing violently through the luminiferous ether possessed of demons, whilst album closer "Mekonenet" slams the accelerator to the floor, the Mekonenet represents the fires of transformation, which bring sorrow but can also lead to rebirth, embodying pain of change, deep stuff and the track rocks like a mother as does the album.

The album artwork is interesting too, dark mysterious, evil intent, something the band have tried to convey and succeeded. If there was ever a fitting album sleeve for album content, then this is it. All dark and disturbing stuff indeed.

Track Listing
1 Peis
2 Run
3 ZX
4 Vagabond
5 Saved By Fear
6 Electric Site
7 Gate Of Mind
8 Mekonenet

Added: December 20th 2010
Reviewer: John OBoyle
Score:
Related Link: www.myspace.com/dukatalon
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Language: english

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