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Paria - Misanthropos
by Mark Hensch

Has anyone ever heard the expression "trapped like a wild animal?" Omaha, Nebraska metalcore act Paria embodies that life philosophy to a tee with their full-length debut Misanthropos. A trapped animal will use any means available to save itself, always focused on salvation. Paria will convey their message(s) in a similarly enraged way, switching extreme music styles on the fly and with ever-changing whims. Unlike that trapped animal, who switches so much intent only on the one purpose of freedom, Paria switches with mixed results; one moment the random time-signatures and riffs are thrown into an amazing and cohesive whole, while in others, the mix comes across as weak, forced, and simply over the top.

For these reasons Paria could someday emerge as a dominant force on the metalcore scene. Armed with thrash metal riffs, whacked tempo shifts, spastic blasts of deep ambience, and unnerving samples, Paria is no matter what one thing many other metalcore bands cannot seem to be: truly unique. However, simply throwing some styles here and a riff there, blending it, and having a hose power-blast it onto a blank wall does not make truly great music. This album definitely needs a grain of salt; at some points the mix produces a picture of astounding genius, while on others, it's just metalcore trying to break from it's own stagnation.

"Misanthropos," the album's title track, is a decent start. The pounding riffs and driving drums are thrown out right away and the vocals by lead singer Brian are as spittle-laden as any other hardcore/metalcore act. What sets this apart from your typical verse/chorus/hardcorebreakdown/end type song is the riffing. Solid, powerful, and at times grooving metal riffs are chucked helter-skelter and the tempo-changes are well-placed and executed. 

"The Abusrdity of Solace" has so many conflicting guitar pieces (jazz-metal note arrangements, thrash riffing, hardcore breakdowns, ambient nightmares) that it is an intimidating but sweet song.

Instrumental "A Modernist Approach to..." is an awesome jam that has a sweet sample (a quote from some movie I can't recall the title) that leads into the best song on all of the CD. 

The amazing "...Human Error" slips you a bass line and before you know it solid, fresh, and most importantly focused riffing has hit you from all sides. At some points everything sounds like a metal soundtrack over sirens, and another high finds the band play a wicked jazz-metal tempo shift that is mocking, playful, and fun. The mechanical and eerie drum beat at the end will make you shiver, and end this jaw-dropping piece of metalcore with a subtle flourish and a quiet bang. Things however go south here for a bit, with "Seeds Planted in Concrete" leading the ill-fated charge. The song is crushing, quick, and somewhat bland piece of metalcore with several breakdowns. It's not bad, but after what you've heard prior, it seems quite weak. 

"A Torn Instance" is a good song, with a joking hardcore riff and clapping drums soon being swallowed whole by beastly metal guitars. "9 Years" is another miss rather then a hit; The awesome guitar parts are somewhat hurt by the various tricks played out here; Paria tries  to make another mind-bended and the result is a little bit of lop-sided metalcore. 

"Dancing to the Sounds of Screaming" is begins with a chilling sample of an argument leading to gunshots, and crazed, manic, and shambling metalcore running roughshod over your ears.

"93rd and Paddock and Road" is a jazz-metal opus song that frankly rocks, and the instrumental is ended by a quick sound-clip from one of Paria's shows and a sweet (though as you will see upon hearing out) out of character hidden track.

All in all, this is a good disc. Props are a must for Paria as they attempt to break free from the crowded scene of metalcore/hardcore/metal bands. I especially liked the use of various samples, the ambience, and the jazz-metal pieces, but this is probably just a given for me as they sound so out of place on a metalcore CD. The instrumentals are superb, as is the hidden track, and I am willing to bet these guys will have a fair amount of buzz on them should another CD ever be released. A good addition to any extreme music fan's CD tower, or someone simply looking for something a little flawed to love, yet different and of nothing but it's own.
 

Paria - Misanthropos
Label: Metal Blade
Rating: 
 

Tracks:  1. Misanthropos 2. The Absurdity of Solace 3. A Modernist Approach to... 4. ...Human Error 5. Seeds Planted in Concrete 6. A Torn Instance 7. 9 Years 8. Dancing to the Sounds of Screams 9. 93rd and Paddock and Road

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