The Breathing Process, eh? Why am I now breathing manually? Jokes aside, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more complete modern metal sound. There’s symphony, melody, harmony, brutality, technicality, gutturality and just about every other –ity imaginable. It’s the all-you-can-eat buffet of brutal. Just don’t expect everything to mesh perfectly all the time.

Therein lies the problem with Odyssey (Un)Dead. There’s just way too much going on. The album opens promisingly, utilizing a very Mastodon-ish opening riff and an ominous quote: “Me, I feed the machinery of death. If that makes me evil, then so be it…” After a little research, I discovered the quote comes from an episode of CSI. Blech. Anyway, with that opening, I’m expecting some absolutely brutal stuff. Instead, I’m treated to a piano infused melodic intro with some blackened-death vocals crawling atop it. It seemed weird, but it does work. And then the blast beats come in, followed by some very intermittent chuggies. The whole while a piano or padding synth runs. You’d likely compare it to modern symphonic black metal (Dimmu Borgir) but that’d be underselling every other bit of their style. Which is all of the styles.

At their very core, The Breathing Process are a technical blackened-death band that likes to stray towards the “black” part of that genre. On top of that, they layer synth and the oft-used rock-ish melody. Then the chick starts singing. Yeah, there’s a chick. Be prepared for that. She doesn’t show up until about ten minutes into the album. It can be a little disconcerting at first, seeing as you may think she’s just around for that one song. She isn’t. The only other album can compare this album to is any LP by The Project Hate MCMXCIX, though that band keeps the black elements to a minimum.

Production wise, we’re looking at a mixed bag. I love the guitar tone. It’s crisp, clean of humming (looking at you, The Project Hate MCMXCIX) and edgy. The riffs are fantastic and would stand great on their own. It’s just a shame that the synth drowns them out to the point of obscurity. I can see the need for the pianos and synth, but they’re too dang loud in the mix. That guitar work could be the best I’ve ever heard, but I wouldn’t know it without a remaster of the album. Drums are good, though the bass drum is a bit too tight. Pitter-patter bass drums work but seems weak with all the bombast flying around here. And any bass guitar work is too low or weak to make it past those drowning synths. The vocals are near perfect. Black howls, deathy low growls, and there’s that chick, who isn’t tone deaf and follows the melodies well.

This album is good. It’s brutal. It’s melodic. It’s a great example of modern mish-mash death/black/progressive/symphonic metal. Great listen, great hooks, great everything. Just a few small issues keep it from becoming legendary. Maybe the next album will blow us all away. This one merely keeps us interested, which I guess is the goal of any album to begin with.

4.0/5