Pressure Points - Remorses to Remember

Genre: Progressive Death Metal

Track List:

1.	Atonement	10:08
2.	Temptation for Hate	07:26
3.	Edge of Endurance	07:44
4.	Calm	02:24
5.	The Past Within	06:32
6.	Out of Sync	09:13
7.	Grand Delusion	09:36

Release: January 2010
Country: Finland
Line-up:

Kari Olli - Guitar, Vocals 

Vili Auvinen - Drums 

Juho Suortti - Guitar
Veli-Matti "Wellu" Kyllönen - Keyboards
Janne Parikka - Bass

Rating: 95%

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Review:

Pressure Points is a very new band from Finland playing extreme progressive metal. Remorses to Remember is their debut album released through Firebox records. It is one of my favorite recording companies from a country where I have both love and hatred for metal. Love for the amazing doom metal bands and hatred for the raucous melodic death metal scene (CoB, Kalmah, Norther, Ensiferum etc.. etc..).

Remorses to Remember is another example on how Opeth has been influencing the new upcoming bands. There was a time when I used to think whether Opeth had about thousand fans in total. But they are now in the line of metal legends of all time where bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest are already there. Impeccable achievement in the recent years, which they deserve so.

Atonement is the first track in this album. This song starts in a typical death/doom fashion of Finland (Swallow the Sun) then the complicated patterns of progressive metal follows. Initially, I thought the melodic clean vocals could have been done better. But actually, it is the portion where the band stands different from Opeth. It is very symphonic and mostly chorus with the progressive rock influence of 70's. A little bit of darker tone atmosphere and the shifts between heavy and mellow parts sure appeals any good listener. Temptation for Hate is again heavily inspired by Opeth. Kari Olli even tries to growl like Mikael Akerfeldt. From 2:10 to 2:47 minutes in the track you can clearly listen to the riffs straight out of Serenity Painted Death. Then there is a brutal assault black metal portion around 3:30 mark. Its kind of odd but still very good especially with the super speed solo. Then the song rolls back to its main tempo and then to a splendid melodic interlude. By now, I started thinking that this is going to be the best album of this year so far.

Edge of Endurance is a daringly experimental effort for a new band. The keyboard section at the end of the song is just so beautiful. Next track is called Calm, which is an interlude for this album. A very nice instrumental break expressing the band's great musicianship. The flute like sounding keys are just amazing (I think Finnish bands can't live without the keyboards). The Past Within, Out of Sync, and Grand Delusion are the last three tracks going by the same formula of heavy and mellow portions. Grand Delusion is a nice finish to the album, which has tons of different portions carefully chiseled. Each subsequent section of the song serves to lead the listener with different experiences that you would find in a good progressive metal band, which all seem to fit this glorious ensemble.

This band has developed an unique sound in their first release, even though they are heavily inspired by Opeth. The formula might be getting old now but I believe there is still a long way to go until we can all start calling it as overdone. Pressure Points is still very young and seems to be having plenty of ideas and this album is simply great.

- Morgoth