Planetary Breathing is the fourth studio album from Finnish six-piece myGRAIN. Mixing melodic keys with a more standard death metal genre, this band subsequently has a unique and individual sound to their music.
The first full track Waking Up The Damned leads in seamlessly from the intro track, with the two tracks sounding as one. The opening is catchy and has a great rhythm to it, with epic keys accompanying it for good measure. Honestly, the keys are what ‘make’ this track – without them, the song would just sound like a standard melodic death metal song, so it’s really fantastic what the simple addition of one instrument can do to a band’s sound.
Ambivalentine is a particularly memorable track. The chorus is beautifully melodic, with the words “you’re my dearest enemy” really resonating well. It’s backed up well with some fantastically-delivered harsh vocals in the verses and also has a great guitar solo in the middle for good measure. The song ends on an abrupt note, which works well for the overall mood of the song.
Mechanimal Instinct is easily the best track of the album, starting with this fantastic chugging line before the perfectly punctuated harsh vocals kick in. In addition, there’s a tremendous amount of energy and momentum behind the drums that really keeps the song moving and your head banging along in time, but the greatest thing of this song is by far the chorus. It’s this massive singalong line that seems destined to be sang along to in a live environment – to say this track is a work of art is an understatement and it is just over five minutes of sheer awesomeness. If you’re only going to check out one album track then make sure it’s this one.
Overall, Planetary Breathing is a great release but it is let down a little bit by lack of structural variety. The songs are fantastic, but they do seem to follow a similar sort of format – and when a lot of songs have the same skeleton, it can be a bit of a problem. However, myGRAIN have their sound down to a T and know exactly where they want to go – which is a very commendable trait to have.
7/10
