When it comes to heavy metal from Israel, bands such as
Orphaned Land or Melechesh are often mentioned, but, like any other country on
this M class planet, there many acts that slip under the radar. Betrayer happen
to be one such act. Hailing from the city of Ra'anana, Betrayer play a brand of
thrash metal with a heavy influence of melodic groove metal and a dash of death
to complete their sound. After a few demos, the band released their sole EP in
1998 titled “My Twisted Symphony”
This music on this little EP (5 songs (one being an instrumental)
and clocking in under 19 minute) is structured around medium paced riffs that
for the most part border the edge of thrash and death metal. Although the riffs
offer a heavy dosage of chugging, there are a number slower, down tuned riffs
that hook the listener and serve as nice “stop and go” style of tradeoffs
between the tempos. Even though the leads may not be anything groundbreaking,
there are some nice rhythms that develop within the songs, which either culminate
into a short, but catchy guitar fill or an interesting solo, both of which fall
within thrash sounding territories.
The drumming is blissfully simple. Adding a steady supply of
double bass kicks that flow in the background of each song, that unfortunately,
never show off anything other than vanilla sounding beats. The same can be said
for the bass, as, you can hear it, if you seek it out, but it isn’t featured
enough to make an impact. I must say though, that the use of keyboards as a
nice layer to the overall sound. Often, the keys kick in behind the guitar
solos to give off a vibe of dissonance that plays very nicely with the guitars.
A good example would be on “Battles Within” or Gardens of Memories” Yishai
Sweartz vocals leave a lot to be desired, as they seem to lack much enthusiasm and
tend to sound more muffled than perhaps the harsh and gruff sound he was
shooting for.
All in all, “My Twisted Symphony” may not have garnered
enough interest to move forward with their career as sadly, this would be their
final output. Despite some of the flaws on vocals, drums and production, I felt
the guitars showed a lot of promise, that with a little more work in the studio,
could have fine-tuned their sound into something more. Unfortunately, things
don’t always work out as they were intended. I can’t say this EP has a lot of
replay value, but the potential was there and I think this is definitely worth
a listen for fans of the early to mid-90’s thrash.
Highlights: “Garden of Memories” “Battles Within”
Rating: 3
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