Originally written by Ryan Plunkett
Ephel Duath’s The Painter’s Palette is a release that has had much hype surrounding it, mainly due to their record company.
Formerly a duo that composed symphonic black metal, Ephel Duath has evolved into a band of five members, including founding member Davide Tiso. At this point in their career, they have pretty much dropped any hints of black metal, and Davide has created something akin to Cynic and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Yet even that doesn’t fully describe what has been recorded here. This is metal with the heaviest jazz influences I have ever come across.
Davide Tiso set out to create something unique with this release and searched for musicians at the top of their game to aid him during his journey. The most surprising recruit is a 47 year old percussion instructor with a blues and jazz background named Davide Piovesan. He has no previous experience with anything related to metal, but at this point, it doesn’t even matter, because The Painter’s Palette transcends metal. Piovesan is able to lay down polyrhythmic beats with ease and does a perfect job following the odd time signatures. Fabio Fecchio takes charge of the bass duties and does so rather well, traveling along the neck and pulling out creative riffs that always keep the listener on his/her toes. Easily my favorite bass moment is in the middle of the song “Labryinthine (crimson)”, when all the other instruments break and there is just a beat for which I can’t even think of words to describe.
Davide Tiso, the main man behind the music, handles all the guitar work. The guitar is tough to describe because it almost feels like there can be so many riffs going on in one song, more like one big compilation of guitar prowess. Not to say there is a whole bunch of Malmsteen-esque craziness, but he displays his skill and ability to write creative music, which is quite alright with me.
Davide Tolomei handles the softer, clean vocals and does a great job at creating the calmness and cool emotion, creating a polar-opposite to the furious screaming of opposing vokillist Luciano Lorusso, who holds a bit of hardcore edge. Additional musicians are Paso, who handles the electronics and keyboards, and Maurizio Scomparin, who handles the trumpet.
I cannot think of one thing wrong with this album. It displays musicians at the top of their game with the ability to craft a song filled with emotion that is most importantly a joy to listen to. This release takes a while to sink in because of all the different things going on; I’ve been listening to the album for around two and a half weeks and I’m still picking out new things I didn’t notice before.
The Painter’s Palette is a release that doesn’t come along too often, and if you’re looking for an album with a twist to metal, you’ve just found a goldmine. I foresee this making a lot of top-ten lists this year.
