Antithesis - Antithesis

Year of Release: 1999
Label: Intromental Management
Catalog Number: n/a
Format: CD
Total Time: 49:57:00

The impressive Danish Intromental Management keep on bringing forward new and interesting quality bands. Antithesis is the latest band added to the Intromental Management stall. The band were formed during summer 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, by the two guitarists Sean Perry and Paul Konjicija. Later on they were joined by bassist James Lewis, vocalist Ty Cook and drummer Paul Kostyack. In December 1998 the band completed their self-titled debut CD, produced by the band itself. In March '99, guitarist Paul Konjicija left the band due to internal arguments. Paul was immediately replaced by the young and talented Allan Marcus and the band intended to re-record Paul's leads on the debut album, as they already had to make adjustments to the album before re-printing it.

The CD has 10 songs (one an instrumental) with a length of 50 minutes with song ranges from 4 through to 8 minutes. What hits you first about this CD is the good production, which is done by the band itself, coming off hard-hitting and powerful. This goes to show you don`t have to be on a major label with a huge budget to get a good sound. The possibilities nowadays, even for independent bands, to get a good production is much better than, let's say, over 5 years ago. Of course, the result is that we should expect more from independent releases as well, when the possibilities of a good production, doing the job yourself, has increased this much over the last few years. What we get here is fairly up-tempo high quality hard-hitting technical power/heavy metal mixed with a nice portion of progressive metal. Overall, the songs are rather up-tempo, but some acoustical parts and passages create the necessary variation this music needs. The twin guitar attack of Sean and Paul is very good and entertaining. The guitars have both punch and depth, and the technical skills of these guitarists are impressive, pulling off great technical runs, instrumental passages, and superb dual solos. Guitar-fans will love this. The rhythm section of bassist Lewis and drummer Kostyack is of course also of premium calibre. There are a lot of time-changes and cool technical runs/passages, and the band is coming off very tight and precise, impressive! No doubt the band has found a great and suitable vocalist in Ty Cook. His vocals are mostly in the mid-range register, and he does one hell of a job, being very varied, which is really entertaining and something that is usually sorely missed in these genres of music.

The overall quality of the songs is very good, and I tell you this CD will grow on you after some spins. It does take some time to really appreciate the melodies, to notice and consume all the technical finesses, but once you do, this CD just keeps getting better and better. If you're a fan of well produced technical power/heavy metal and prog metal, and appreciate the best of 80s heavy/power metal, you will have to og no further than this. Antithesis is the answer.

[This review originally appeared November 2002 at the ProgPower Online review site. -ed.]

Tracklisting:
Netherworld (4:41) / Scroll 29 (0:33) / Breeding The Beast (8:13) / Sword Of Mouth (4:51) / The Curse (6:30) / Limbo (04:18) / The Web (5:35) / Secret Fires (3:23) / Plastic (4:36) / Descend (instrumental) (7:18)

Musicians:
Ty Cook - vocals
Sean Perry - guitars, vocals
Allan Marcus - guitars, synth
James Lewis - bass
Paul "Krusty? Kostyack - drums

Discography:
Antithesis (1999)
Dying For Life (2001)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin US

Added: November 25th 2004
Reviewer: Bjørnar Bevolden
Score:
Artist website:
Hits: 2225
Language: english