Heavy as hell and thunderously quick riffs are what greet you in the opening seconds of “Deafening Silence”, it’s an awesome opening, one that quickly has them stamping their mark on you from the get-go. It’s an approach throughout the EP that works well, no nonsense (barring some moments of the last track), straight out melodic yet powerful Death Metal.

Opener “Red Serenade” works on many levels, impressive riffs, well growled vocals and in general just being a very awesomely written song. Even with all these plusses though, it comes off sounding very typical for a lot of Melodic Death Metal, heavy verses, clean chorus etc… while not being a terrible thing, it is a slight turn off, it is a huge relief then, that when “The Residue” finishes, you know that EMBREACH have a few tricks up their sleeves.

First off is the stunning use of acoustic interludes, which when contrasted with the heavy as hell riffing the band can pull off sounds utterly entrancing. There’s also the range of the vocalist, who pulls off the growled vocals wonderfully well and can also adapt to many different types of cleans. “The Residue” also shows the band not sticking to the typical formula of a Melodic Death Metal song, instead focusing on the epic climax, utilising the dynamics of their sound to best effect.

The true highlight of the EP doesn’t come around until the third track though, “Shadow’s Song”. Here the band are at their most aggressive, most dynamic and most melodic all at once. The riffs here step up a notch from the previous two songs, as do the vocals (the vocalist utilises a lower tone for some of the cleans, and it sounds awesome). A particular highlight is the simply perfect bridge, which once again shows off the best of the band’s dynamics, with acoustic guitars and huge growling vocals contrasting each other wonderfully. Here the singer bellows out many of the most memorable lines in the whole EP, the war themed lyrics playing off the best emotions that can come out of concepts like that (Saw soldiers waving goodbyes with tears in their eyes / No hope / Only certain demise).

To finish off the EP, you have the nearly ten minute “In Your Wake”, which is mostly cleanly sung, albeit still featuring the very impressive growls to contrast on occasion (these moments are coincidently the best on the song). While still being a good song, it drags on occasionally with it’s length, and you can’t help feeling that the five minute length is more suited to the band’s dynamics at this moment.

Still though, I’ve found myself more and more impressed with this EP the more I’ve listened to it. Hell, “Shadow’ Song” is one of my favourite songs of recent times. At a reasonable length and varied enough to keep interest, it is a very solid showing from a young and talented band. You also have no excuse not to get this seeing as it’s free to download over at their website. Here’s to a full album eventually.