REVIEW: Beijing melodic death metal Die From Sorrow | Lord Of the Alien Seas (2016)

BAND: Die From Sorrow (China)
RELEASE: Lord Of The Alien Seas (2016)
REVIEWER: Unite Asia
FIND MORE INFO HERE:
https://site.douban.com/diefromsorrow
Final Rating: 100/10

The Chinese metal scene is a passionate collection of diehard metalheads who will live and die beating their chest to the sounds of badass riffs and heart pounding double bass drums. Though like the rest of the world more of the trend-humping elements of contemporary metal has also seeped into the psyche of many of the who’s who of today’s Chinese metal scene, bands like Die From Sorrow, who have just released their second full length entitled Lord Of The Alien Seas, keep their music as pure and traditional as can be within the context of being a metal band in 2016. The band are proud flag bearers of the melodic death metal scene of China having been at this since 2003, and from the first note to the last – you sense this band has it’s foundation firmly in place in this sound. The music on this album certainly gravitates more on the melodic side with immense soaring highs in both guitars and vocals. Though the band, thankfully, stays clear of singing melodically, what the vocalist does incorporate is screaming in tune and key which lends an emotive sensibility to the overall feel of the songs.

When they were creating this masterpiece of an album, they already knew they wanted to take the listener on a journey and thus decided to create a concept album built on a firm melodic death base, but having the freedom to add any instrumentation on top of it to compliment the story that unfolds as the record continues to it’s climactic end.

Die From Sorrow should not be a band that is overlooked…if you want any initial introduction to China’s metal scene, this is a GREAT place to start.

Can’t end this record review without discussing that album cover…the artist that created this is Namsing out of Thailand. The album cover is immensely captivating – I find myself going back to it over and over trying to figure out what the dragon in the ocean and the fisherman caught in this chaotic storm represents. Beautiful work…if you want to check out more of Namsing’s work head over to this: https://www.facebook.com/Namsingillustrat Here’s even a rough sketch of the cover that he put up on his facebook page:

I hope for your sake that Die From Sorrow put this album up on something like bandcamp so metalheads outside of China can get their hands on it.