Metal Monday: Draconic's "From the Wrong Side of Aperture" [Review]

posted in: Features • Reviews & Playlists • Rock

Odds are, if you were asked who your favorite Serbian metal band was, you wouldn’t have an answer. Well, I may have found one for you. Longtime OurStage metal band Draconic happen to be Serbian, and also happen to be pretty good. At first listen, you might think that they would be from a Scandanavian country such as Sweden, as they bear a slight resemblance to the modern melodic death metal bands from that area, such as Soilwork. There’s also hints of Sybreed, Strapping Young Lad, Fear Factory and Threat Signal (among others) in their sound ” all culminating into a blend of metal that is all their own.

Released in 2009, Draconic’s album From the Wrong Side of the Aperture is their first full-length release 2004, and definitely sounds like it was 5 years in the making.Listening to the tracks, it’s clear that this was not an album written in a small span of time.  the styles and emotions are stikingly different from song to song. It’s a fine line for a band to straddle, featuring so many styles in 1 album, but it never becomes tiresome or overwhelming. One of the album’s few downfalls, are the vocals (though they do give the album a sense of cohesiveness). Singer and bassist Galic’s clean vocals often sound lackluster in comparison to the harsher tones on the albumwhich takes away some of the emotion in the songs.

Where this album really excels is in the the band members technical prowess. Heavily rooted in the “Gothenburg” metal sound, most of the songs feature thick guitar chords and keyboard textures, with lots of staccato riffs seamlessly folded in. Draconic really breaks the mold with their variations in styles” best demonstrated in the 7 minute odyssey “The Imbecile”. Incredibly memorable hooks and guitar solos are really what make F rom the Wrong Side of the Aperture as good as it is. Song after song, the listener is exposed to something that they’ll not soon forget.

If you enjoy any of the bands mentioned above, or just want to listen to some great progressive technical melodic death metalcore (a list of genres that still don’t properly encapsulate Draconic’s sound), From the Wrong Side of Aperture is a solid go-to album.

As a quick  preview, here are a couple tracks from the album: