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Once Human – Scar Weaver

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Once Human - Scar Weaver

Once Human - Scar Weaver
3.6

Rating

 3.6/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very good instrumental skills
  • Some very nice and atmospheric tracks

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Too few very good songs

Time for the hard guitar sounds: Once Human is releasing their third album Scar Weaver on 11th Feburary 2022. Five years after their last album Evolution, the US metal band is back again with ten new tracks. Here are my thoughts.

 

Once Human – About The Artists

Once Human are doing melodic death metal. They have been founded in 2014 in Los Angeles. The year after, they already released their their debut album The Life I Remember. Three founding members are still active: Guitarist Logan Mader, singer Lauren Hart and Damien Rainaud on the bass. Drummer Dillon Trollope joined the band in 2015, guitarist Max Karon one year later. So far, the band has released two studio album. In addition, there was the live album Stage of Evolution in 2018.

 

Once Human – Scar Weaver – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 41 minutes.

1. Eidolon

Some introducing riffs, a couple of hits on the drums and then Lauren Hart is driving her band to full powers. If you don’t know Once Human, it may be hard to believe that this grunting is created by a female vocalist – but I would just count that as the death metal way of female emancipation. Promising opener.

2. Deadlock (feat. Rob Flynn)

Without a doubt, Deadlock is one of the highlights of the album. The song is driven by the great vocal battle of Lauren Hart and Machine Head’s Rob Flynn. I’d definitely love to hear more of this combo – it feels like a perfect fit.

3. Scar Weaver

After being pushed by the Deadlock, the following title track feels to be a bit like a slow-down. The drums are a marching forward in a more decent speed, the song feels a bit darker. Towards the end, there is a bit of a metalcore touch in the song to me.

4. Bottom Feeder

Why do they use a drummer in genres like death metal at all? You could alternative just use a machine gun – at least, when you judge on the intro of Bottom Feeder. The track is also the longest song of the album and the only one which is exceeding the five minute barrier. Nice chance to change the speed and style of the song here and there.

5. Where The Bones

Massive drumming on this song again, which is having a nice chorus, but overall feels to be concentrating too much on the drumming to me. Rather nice chorus.

6. Erasure

Erasure is the second song on the album, which has been pre-released. The song starts rather slow, almost hymnic. The song overall invests a lot in the atmosphere as well as in the melodic elements and does not feel to be a close to five minute shouter only. Thus, it is one of my favorites of the album.

7. Deserted

Deserted has some nice bass line and shows a nicer and wider range of Hart’s vocal potential – but overall, the song does not persuade me as much as other tracks do.

8. We Ride

Did I ask why they don’t replace Dillon Trollope by a machine gun? We Ride is the 2:42 minute answer to that question – the machine gun would be far too slow for that track. The song feels as if the band is playing it with a massive speed pitch. Impressive musical talent and instrumental skills, but that’s all on the positive side. I prefer other songs of the album, for sure.

9. Cold Arrival

Cold Arrival is another track which is underlining the melodic qualities of Once Human. Not that fast, the song has a lot of atmosphere and is definitely deserving a thumbs up in my point of view.

10. Only In Death

Only In Death is also altering between grunting and melodic parts. The song almost hits the five minute mark. A good one, but I feel that Cold Arrival is more catching.

 

Once Human – Scar Weaver – Spotify

Here is Scar Weaver on Spotify:

 

Once Human – Scar Weaver – My View

Scar Weaver comes with some really nice songs. I saw some rather average reviews of the predecessor album. I can definitely state that the band had made use of the hiatus and took a big step forward. There is a lot of skill and talent in the band – with another step, they will be in the top notch range. Scar Weaver is good, but not more than that.

 

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