In 2016 Luke Dinan formed Christian symphonic death metal project, Children of wrath, in Phoenix, Arizona. The one man army behind the Blackened Melodic Symphonic Holy Death metal project, released his debut album “No Flesh Spared” in June 2017. The album took about 9 months from beginning to end. Every step of the writing, recording, production, mixing, and mastering was handled by Luke. He states that “the album has a sonic palette chock full of pummelling riffs, brutal vocals, and hauntingly beautiful atmospheres that are sure to hit that gratification spot in your grey matter”.
Luke went on a mission to record metal, a genre he had listen to since the days of Whitecross. His views of metal changed when a band known as Six Feet Deep came onto the scene. Despite always listening to metal, he and a friend released a pop/rock album under the name of The Future Calling, a project drawing on an array of influences such as New Order, Tears for Fears, and Depeche Mode
In July 2017, “Children of Wrath” alongside “Symphony of Heaven” signed up with Nosral Recordings. Luke also masters other bands material like Symphony of Heaven, Ascending King and The Beckoning, under the name of DinaSound. Earlier this year one of Luke’s Original song was featured in a Star wars Fan film released via The Bearded Dragon Productions. Luke lists Septic Flesh, Satyricon, Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth, and Opeth as some of his influences. In my opinion, there is much more flavour that’s yet to be discovered and observed, so without much ado, let me jump on to the album.
“The Legacy of Man” an instrumental track kicks off with full overdrive on the guitar supplemented with harmonica and plenty ambient elements setting up a dark and dredging up the chill soundscape. “The Words” rumbles up the sky with thunder and an air raid siren and has readings out of Psalms which brings in a different tune to a different psalm. The vocals on the song are pretty angry and heavy and full of symphonic soundscapes which accentuates the overall delivery of the song.
“Seven Plagues” is pounded by blast beats and deathly growls with some equally heavy guitar chugging, and a riff that sort of forms the backbone to the track. The guttural screams party well with ambient keys making it sound truly Blackened melodic. “The Degenerate City” offers hypnotic keys with a ghastly hymn at the beginning but takes a different course as we progress with the song. The guitars have chunkier tones and the outro takes us again to a hypnotic setting.
“Forerunner” builds up energy with a low gain guitar riff shifting into a monstrous scream muffled with blast beats giving one an eerie shock. The song drifts back to a lower tempo giving a breather but taking no time to slam hard hitting guitar riffs at you. There are plenty of surprise elements as I coursed through the song. “No Flesh Spared” clubs high pitched screams with deathly growls with ballistic beats on the drums. A mild sort of a guitar solo follows midway, the guitar tones are sharp and the clean guitar riff clubbed with fiddle (I think) give a different flair to the song.
“Grave Digger” takes off with an industrial riff and ever shuddering scream and just when we were getting comfortable, the guitars looms in with an eerie riff (Along with Keys) which helps set a hypnotic soundscape which sure is to give you a chill. The riffs are sure to get you head-banging. “By Fire and Sword” starts off with a melodic intro on the Keys, the guitars pave their way in with heavy riffs, the chilling vocals with the blitzing guitar solo takes this song to different scale in comparison to prior ones.
The album culminates with “The Remnants and the Martyrs” which is the longest track on the album. The songs takes on a narrative and quickly switches to mind boggling head spinning heavy AF chorus that will surely make you jump up and let it all out (reminded me of Children of Bodom). The song has a clean section that’s sure mesmerize you and leave you asking for more. The outro guitar riff/solo signs off the album in classy way.
Production : Production was balanced and not over exaggerated, I loved the way some tracks were panned, which helped in setting an eerie atmosphere throughout the album.
Conclusion : For a debut album I gave it a good listen, and listened to it over and over again. There is some promising music delivered and waiting for more in the future. Go Buy!!
Rating: 7.5/10
Written by: Ankit Sood
Tracklist:
1. The Legacy Of Man
2. The Words
3. Seven Plagues
4. The Degenerate City
5. Forerunner
6. No Flesh Spared
7. Grave Digger
8. By Fire And Sword
9. The Remnant And The Martyrs
Band members
Luke Dinan – Well Everything!
Weblinks: Facebook / Twitter / Bandcamp
Buy the album here:
Holland: First Paradox
Norway: Nordic Mission
Lyric video ‘By Fire And Sword’