Canopy

Sweden's Canopy proclaim themselves (or at least their PR person does) as being the new breed of death metal. If that means that their latest, Will and Perception, barely sounds like death metal, then okay, I guess that's accurate. The main problem is that their second full-length is, minus two new songs, a collection of remastered tracks from previous EPs and despite not hearing the originals, the word "fragmented" comes to mind when listening to the album in its entirety. While the talent of the relatively young band is evident, it feels like they tried to remaster a bit too much. Curiously, on some tracks, like standout "Common Walls," there seems to be a switcheroo going on ― sometimes there are much stronger, deeper vocals riding more melodic, less aggressive rhythms and riffs but on the next track it's reversed. Bands that switch tempos on a dime are all the rage but when a song, such as "Counsels and Maxims," with its acoustic, pagan-/folk-ish intro, switches to what sounds like the soundtrack to a bad '80s flick, the band may get an A for effort but in their enthusiasm to improve older tracks, they botched things a bit.