MELDAMOR - "True Sacrifice" Album Review
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Meldamor are the electrifying duo of Mel and Dave Parley (former founding member of Prayers). This Phoenix based musical project is among those thrillingly pushing the boundaries of genre fusion in the darkwave/post-punk field. For the ones stereotypically thinking that darkwave is nothing but one dimensional revival, this could be the album that changes your mind. Even I admit to struggling with the repetitive and sometimes "limited" nature of this genre, bound to create more Ian Curtis copies than original acts. What is darkwave today? Can you even call Meldamor darkwave? Probably not, and surely they wouldn't like it. After all, nothing seems less darkwave than choosing a Manowar style album cover and wearing power metal attire. If I had to describe their music, I would first of all say that it's strongly synth-driven (as that seems to be the backbone of their every song). Add classic heavy metal influences, hardcore punk elements, EBM undertones, and the occasional blackgaze growling vocals to this juxtaposition of euphoric beats and melancholic melodies, and this still only roughly defines "True Sacrifice". Acts like Meldamor outline the evolution of post-punk and darkwave as genres, and this is exciting news (for the ones who don't regard music in a "purist" safe manner). In these last years, we started seeing more and more bands unapologetically embracing this "fusion approach", as if this was a new anthemic movement aiming to detach from the classic "gothic" vision and stereotype. All of a sudden, we got artists such as Bootblacks, Bambara, Diaf, and Poltergeist producing hybrid albums that would totally shatter the idea of darkwave itself, or perhaps simply "re-invent" it better. "True Sacrifice" also happens to be the opening song of the album. It's a toned-down introduction to this duo. A solid track that will definitely not alienate nor break boundaries. It's however masterfully produced. The vocals are some of the best on the album, and the background industrial synthwave component is "loud enough" to complement the singing perfectly without ever outshining it. "In My Heart" is for me one of the top songs. This is "almost" everything Meldamor is about: masterfully engineered progressions leading a music structure that is theatrical, vulnerable, yet rough on the edges when it needs be. An unstoppable river of raw emotions flowing in the angsty sea of "Complete Control", the pinnacle of the album. This is an electro-punk anthem ready to take over any club. I remember it coming out as a single back in March, and wondering "imagine if the new album could all be at this level". That hardly ever happens to be fair, but I feel like it did in this case. "Ride Thy Panther" re-affirms my statement. What I truly appreciate about this track (and most of their tracks) is the fact that the singing and the melody are often two separate entities. The only instances in which the singing fully mirrors the synths are the growling segments. Mel's vocals are always "independent", as if she is the story teller, and the music around her, the frame. However, this couldn't be further from the actual truth. It's a bit like a magic trick, in which we are cleverly presented with something as the foreground, and we are meant to perceive the rest as background noise and "embellishment", while it's actually the background carrying the whole show. I say that while believing she is possibly the most charming female vocalist in this genre, which further proves Dave's production and composition skills. Mel is among the few female singers who can flawlessly transition from vulnerable ethereal singing to raw electro-punk/hardcore angst while executing both styles with the same effectiveness and intention. She could have easily been a power metal singer in a parallel life, and she most definitely is on her album cover! All in all, it's exceptional singing, and exceptional song writing. It does beg the question: would his compositions sound as effective with a different vocalist? Surely not. Were they written with her type of vocality in mind? Surely (this invalidates my previous question, of course). These two have found each other, and sometimes in music and in life, that's the real miracle.
TRACKLIST: True Sacrifice
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