You probably shouldn't expect too much from a country most people would think was part of South America, but Dominican Republic-born Archaios are definitely aware of what's been going down in the rest of the world. Which is impressive, considering the political climate they live in, so give them credit for even being able to get this release out to the rest of the world because according to sources they were actually involved in a government censorship campaign against their music. Some of those taíno girls down there are pretty hot too... But let's get to the grit. Archaios is largely melodic death metal. All of the references, memories, albums, songs, epically shitty cover art samples, and misprinted zines that come to mind are merely the foam on top of the brew that is The Distant. But it's like a fine, ethnic lager, minus the exotic quality. There are a ton of possible comparisons we could pull out of our asses for this one, but let's instead take it as it is, they deserve it.
The Distant hops around in the carrot patch of several metal genres while thankfully finishing every bite; there are moments of thrash, moments of melodic, moments of classic hair, pretty much all of the higher-end, high-production metal the majority of us fans are familiar with. Some sites out there have noted a low production value to this album, but they're full of shit. Apparently it took the band over ten years to get their music out of their country, and five years of various funding problems led to the creation of this very album, so you get a sense of each year of progress as the band learns a little more of one style, a little more of another, and then eventually slaps it onto disc like an unserialized novel in one fell swoop. But don't think these guys are taking the fanboy approach due to their marginal beginnings. This isn't influence over style. Archaios are talented as all hell, and the solos alone are enough to impress the usual metal fan. The majority of the riffs are catchy as shit, though quite similar to the usual, but their dips in and out of melodic and thrash provide plenty of reason to listen to the whole. Overall, The Distant is a fine piece of work, but it's not totally without fault.
At times, it reads note for note like any random melodic metal band you'd pull out of your collection, though only the good ones. But still, it's very difficult to discern exactly what makes Archaios Archaios, because they probably collected and ate up a plethora of albums most of us have forgotten in their process of creating The Distant. Another problem is the music occasionally goes from awesome riffage to frivolous keyboard sweeps ala absurdist epic metal. So at times you take these guys seriously, other times you take them about as seriously as comparing Whales to Goldfish (yeah, the crackers). There's absolutely nothing here that's going to make you say "now that's something interesting", though you'll certainly enjoy it. The solos are fucking impressive, but other issues, such as the drums, could use some work. For the most part, since we're talking about them, you could put the dude's kick on loop most of the time and you wouldn't notice. Sometimes he even Lars it a bit more than we'd like. And the singing is straightforward, deep and forceful, but nothing new. Still, Archaios have an awesome first approach to the rest of the world here, and the struggle they went through to do it is enough to give them the chance to show us what they have in the future. Hope for the best, it will probably come.
Official Site
Written by Arkus
