Planetary is a self-proclaimed Instrumental “blackened power”
metal band. I have been wanting to review some underground Power metal for a
while, since I love hearing good stuff from that genre, and the other genre
tags piqued my interest, but also threw up some warning flags at the same time.
In the end, it all just doesn’t really come together.
There is just a lack of sense when the pretty sounding ambient
synth into is called “Annihilation of all You Hold Dear”. There is just no
evocation of ‘Annihilation’ here at all. It is an interesting piece, but it doesn't really lead into the next track, nor does it give the listener any insight into what is to follow on the remainder of this EP.
“Earth’s End” starts off with a similar eerie, yet pleasant
piano/synth intro before the ‘black metal’ kicks in. The blackened aspect of
all these songs is basically simple four note riffs tremolo’d with some
programmed blasts underneath, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it doesn’t sit
comfortably with the rest of the music. There is an awesome Dream Theater-like
riff that kicks in at around 1:30 but the song takes a dive into another
ambient part before picking up with another cool melody before the end of the
song, which sports a tasteful solo as well.
That seems to be the way most of the songs here work:
ambient, power and ‘black’ parts strung together, without any real repetition.
I understand that being instrumental, the idea here is to probably pack a bunch
of cool ideas in and not let the songs get repetitive or boring. This is a good
idea in theory, but transitions between parts are often shaky and some
repetition of riffs and themes would help make the songs feel more like songs
and less like collections of riffs.
The instruments are all well performed/programmed. The guitar
especially shines through with lots of good melodies and leads that are simple,
yet effective and compliment the riffs. “Arrival” has some wicked leads on it
and probably the most song-like structure of all the pieces here.
The ambient tracks, the aforementioned intro to the album
along with “Desolate Space” are cool ideas, but they don’t stick around long
enough to really develop into anything special. If the ideas on this album were
split into two projects: One metal and one Ambient, it could be beneficial to
the compositions and overall flow and feel.
So, there’s some cool stuff here, but it just isn’t all gel.
A lack of vocals means the music has to stand up on its own, and it just isn’t
strong enough. There’s an identity crisis going on here that holds back the
potential.
Tex's rating: 60%
