Voraath - Siren Head & The Barren (Review)

Voraath is an extreme metal band from North and South Carolina USA, featuring members from Nile (Brad Parris), Xael (Joshua Ward), Rapheumet’s Well, Implosive Disgorgence, and Sweet Blood. As described by the band, they are an otherworldly and experimental death metal band that brings together emotional yet brutal music and science fantasy appealing to both metal enthusiasts as well as those who appreciate the lore of the music. With two singles - “Siren Head” and “The Barren” off their discography, I can’t wait to share my thoughts on them.

Opening right off with a symphonic intro, “Siren Head” sucks you in with its blazing speed of flashy, techy riffs and rapid drumming. The songwriting standards are somewhere upon the level of the extremity legends like Aborted and Cattle Decapitation. The placement of female vocals might feel weird for this level of extremity, but it surely works and it's mesmerizing. Around the second-half, elements of melodic death metal bleeds in and a significant amount of time is spent on building the momentum upto the epic conclusion at the end, again incorporating female vocals.

“The Barren” opens its hellish realms with a horror cinematic buildup. The powerful chest-thumping riffs which oscillate between the realms of dissonance and doom. The note selections are as chaotic as the atmosphere and environment built up. Along halfway, the bassline is mesmerizing, which then leads to the melo-death realm with melodic guitar solos aided by the beautiful choir vocals.

Voraath serves me the brand of plethora of extreme metal which I absolutely enjoy. Combined with the technicality with few sprinkles of death-grind, the band does know how to sound brutal. Also bringing in female vocals and orchestrations for the most part - that should not go uncredited as well. But where the band’s mammoth monstrosity fails is the production. Disappointed to say Voraath at first sounds like a half-baked product, which will take some patience of yours to sit through. The production of “The Barren” is awfully bad! In the age of instant gratification where if not provided with at least a decent mix, people are just gonna forget your stuff. The production just clouds the musical prowess featured on both the tracks. Hope Voraath improves on their mixing and gets discovered by a lot of other extreme-heads in the future.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Website: https://www.facebook.com/Voraath

Genre: Brutal Death Metal / Extreme Metal

Label: Independent