THE DESCENT is a quite new band from the Basque Region in Spain. Around since 2006, “Dimensional Matters” marks their debut release. These guys sound like they went to the Gothenburg school of Metal. But they left school too early to find their own way. Bands like AT THE GATES, (early) IN FLAMES or (early) DARK TRANQUILLITY are not just the force behind this album, they are its blueprint. It is not wrong to call THE DESCENT copycats, since it is hard to find own ideas in their sound. After an electronic intro, the opener ‘The Web Of Lies’ shows the direction for the majority of the next 36 minutes: Melodic Death Metal, always on full throttle, with very few chances to catch your breath. And so it goes on with ‘Sacred War’ and ‘Winter Hell’, two songs which are hard to tell apart. The first song that really got my attention was ‘Rejected By The Sun’ with melodic choruses and mid tempo breaks that IN FLAMES didn’t do better in their early days. Following ‘The Day After’, a quite dull midtempo track, is another fast and uninspired one called ‘Drug’, before the album loses its tension. ‘Wraith (Tied To Reality)’ just doesn’t kick ass and even the electronically accentuated ‘No One Cares’ misses the mark. Then ‘Confined’ woke me up with its melodic solo break before ‘Guilty Conscience’ closes the album in the vein of the usual songs. THE DESCENT have surely done well, technically, but there’s still way to go. The next album could be a killer, if they start to go their own way. Up to now, I can only find the good, pretty tight sound and two nice songs to their credit. If you want to check them out, go to www.facebook.com/thedescentofficial or the label site www.xtreemmusic.com