The brainchild of Mike Hrubovcak Azure Emote released his third album “The Third Perspective” in 2020, once again presenting open-mindedness and original vision on music. And here Azure Emote is even farther from death metal. Clearly, the music of Azure Emote visibly differs from the music, which Mike plays in his other bands (Monstrosity or Vile). This time, apart from the death metal basis, there’s a lot of various stuff, from the ritual or electronic elements to the classical influence or progressive passages with a strong sense of technicality.
The use of violin is here on every song, it’s sophisticated and beautiful sound brightens the record, but without symphonic mood (only “Negative Polarity” and “Three Six Nine” are symphonic). In general, the album is stuffed with multiple musical elements, but it is holistic and sounds perfectly smooth, all experiments are integrated precisely and gracefully, allowing listeners to enjoy gradual transition and variability of artistic ideas. This music is mature and well-designed, but also, it’s not polished from top to bottom to the point, when the music itself becomes predictable or boring.
There are plenty of electronic elements on “The Third Perspective”. “Three Six Nine” is like a powerful symphonic industrial song. Synths of “Dark Realms” create moody and woeful atmosphere in the end, but in the middle of the song the keyboards intricately brought into the melodic pattern with accelerated pace (and it changes during the song several times). The keyboards also provide the music with some sort of extra melodiousness. “Three Six Nine” and “Curse Of Life” are formed on death metal, but actually, none of the songs radiates the purity of genre. There is a rich choice of samples on “The third Perspective”, especially on the song “Solitary Striving” (cosmic and nature sound, thunder, children’s laughter…). This is the slowest and most pensive song presented on this record, with the only accompaniment of acoustic guitar and nearly without singing. But even this thoughtful song fastens toward the end, acquiring some metal hint.
The female voice of invited singer Melissa Ferlaak (best-known for her bands Aesma Daeva and Visions of Atlantis) isn’t a key element here, her voice appears exactly with a mood change. She sings rather modestly, and her singing symbolizes the smooth transition on every song. But on “Negative Polarity” her duet with Mike truly demonstrates her operatic skills, making this song slightly romantic. The clean singing of guest singers Ron Vento and Ryan Moll also provides good contrast to screaming and growling of Mike (and he sings unimaginably clearly). On the song “Three Six Nine” he gave himself the freedom to diversify the singing pattern, adding to the song a bit of restrained craziness (and there is even a trumpet). The complicated solo guitar passages belong to guest guitarists Mark English, Ryan Moll and Bob Davodian, their progressive skillfulness makes this record more technical and vivid. And even the colorful cosmic artwork from their frontman is well-matched, creating more atmospheric and aesthetic spirit.
Oddly enough, but the music itself happened to be emotionally reserved, and gives an opportunity to evaluate “The Third Perspective” soberly from the first listening. Their proclaimed misanthropic avant-garde death metal definitely turned out to be refreshing on heavy metal scene, when avant-garde doesn’t sound confusing or chaotic.
Release date: March 6th, 2020
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