### Loch Vostok: Dystopium

#### 13/09/11 || Smalley

“Dystopium” is a self-contradiction, and a disappointment because of it, something that’s evident right from the first track; it starts off with chuggy, Lamb Of God-like riffing, which is not a good thing at all, but then vocalist Teddy Möller of F.K.Ü. (a band who I don’t know is a good thing or not yet) kicks in with somewhat Warrel Dane-ish singing during the verse, and I start to enjoy myself a lil’. That enjoyment is soon dashed by a transition to half-assed harsh vox, but the feeling returns with a vengeance during the highly melodic chorus, only to disappear again later on. See what I mean? It’s back-and-forth-and-back between the good and the weak on this one.

Metallum calls Vostok “extreme progressive metal”, but it’s more accurate to say they mix some proggy elements in with death, thrash, groove, and (gulp) metalcore-inspired stuff, and based off just this album, the style they pull off best is the prog. Seriously, they put some orchestra elements in on “World trade dissenter” and make it work pretty well, so you know they have potential, but the disappointing “aggressive” material here, along with the occasional, ill-advised inclusion of metalcore influenced guitar lines and clean vocals bring the album down a good bit. It’s a shame, because Teddy really can pull off clean, melodic vox when he does the right thing. Oh yeah, and that stupid dialogue sample from “Network” is stupid.

6/10: Focus on cutting the number of tracks down, and on being more melodic and proggy in the future, or else get better at doing the heavier shit, and then maybe we’ll talk.