THE BEAST

The Final Sleep - Vessels Of Grief - Reviewed By POWERMETAL ! Check it out here at this link: http://www.powermetal.de/review/review-Final_Sleep__The/Vessels_Of_Grief,38874.html

Partly wild style mix of prog, melodic and death metal with promising approaches.

When the names EDGE OF SANITY and CONTROL DENIED come up in a band's self-description, my personal expectation level immediately skyrockets, as both are among my eternal favorites in the melodic and progressively oriented death steel sector. Should the name THE FINAL SLEEP be added to this list in the future? Well, the Americans, who act with three guitarists in an unusual line-up for a death metal combo, have that in their own hands with their second album "Vessels Of Grief" and a total of six fresh compositions. The beautiful cover artwork offers a good start visually, even before you have put the CD in the player.

And also musically, the troupe from the state of New York starts directly like the fire brigade and delivers with the opener 'Screaming In Silence' a real pound, which quickly questions their own musical classification. Yes, the harder passages certainly hint at a few parallels to Chuck Schuldiner and CONTROL DENIED, the extremely massive growls meanwhile make you think more of oldschool death metal and in the great chorus including clear vocals I even hear the grunge titans ALICE IN CHAINS as an influence in terms of melody, before the whole number in the middle part turns into a guitar rhapsody, which would also have made John Petrucci proud. Against the outstanding debut, the following 'Until It Ends' can't quite stand at the beginning, but the clear vocals interspersed again later in the song improve the overall impression once again, with frontman Jeff Andrews even sounding a bit like the young Mike Patton here. All in all, a very peculiar mixture, which the quintet presents here, but which works surprisingly well.

'Pale Whisper' even adds a melancholic aspect to the colourful style mix bouquet and reminds us of Finnish representatives like INSOMNIUM, while 'Soul In Between' has a much harder metal edge over long stretches and can't keep up with the quality of the opening triple in my ears. In general, at least for me with increasing playing time, some signs of wear and tear spread, because as interesting as the sometimes wild style mix of the Americans is, from time to time the fivesome also wants too much and fails to work out strong ideas and moments with the necessary calm.

So in the end it is also the three mentioned highlights at the beginning of the record that convince completely, while the entire second half of 'Vessels Of Grief' can no longer grab me quite so much. Nevertheless, the moaning here remains at the highest level. In terms of craftsmanship, THE FINAL SLEEP is already on the level of its own role models, and if the compositional compactness of the first three songs can also be transferred to the entire album distance in the future, then we have a real prog death metal blast in the house! - POWERMETAL

Release Date: February 4, 2022

FFO: Opeth, Edge of Sanity, Control Denied

Location: Troy, N.Y.

The Final Sleep - melodic/progressive death metal from Troy, N.Y. for fans of Opeth, Edge of Sanity, and Control Denied. Features founding members of Arsis and Burning Human. New 6 song/40 min album Vessels of Grief out on February 4, with two advance tracks (“Screaming in Silence” and “Until it Ends”) currently available on the TFS Bandcamp.

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