Lista de los grupos Melodic Death Kälter (CAN) Ubuntu

Kälter’s Ubuntu is an album of the epic variety, soaring synths mixed with death growls, occasional clean vocals and excellent progressive death metal instrumentation results in Ubuntu being one of the most interesting and exciting albums I’ve heard in a while.

The synth work on Ubuntu is absolutely phenomenal, it’s completely overblown and pompous yet somehow they have made it work. The synths coat the music in an epic atmosphere that makes it sound like the soundtrack to an anime or fantasy movie. In this regard the music is extremely cinematic and I challenge anyone to find a metal album this over the top from any of its subgenres. Although some people are opposed to the use of synth mainly because they think it adds an unwanted layer of cheese over the music and shifts the focus away from the guitars, usually citing Dimmu Borgir as a reason as to why synth just doesn’t work. I disagree, I personally love operatic and bombastic metal, I’m a huge sucker for symphony laden over the top pompous metal and Ubuntu is a brilliant example of it. A major criticism I see cited a lot at symphonic metal albums is that supposedly the synths just don’t fit in with the metal context, fair enough I guess as everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I can sort of understand that some people would rather metal stay predominantly guitar based and not having it epic and bombastic. So that is a fair criticism but I’m going to have to go against that view point here, the synth work in Ubuntu is definitely needed and it wouldn’t be the same without it. The synth work makes Ubuntu insanely grandiose and results in it being one of the most epic sounding albums I’ve ever heard.

Unfortunately due to the dramatic keyboards the other instruments may be forgotten, that’s not to say they’re bad because they’re not, it’s just that the keyboards have a tendency to dominate pretty much everything underneath them. On the guitar front we have some really good progressive and melodic death metal riffs, with Tribulation having a solid and catchy melodic riff. The guitars are nothing short of excellent and the solos are breathtakingly beautiful. At times they will lead into a clean guitar section which compliments the music wonderfully. Although I have seen several criticisms about the apparent lack of focus between synths and guitars and that they’re out of focus from each other, once again I have to disagree on this one. I think some of the criticisms that this album gets about it’s over the top nature are from people who generally don’t listen to symphonic metal and are therefore out of touch with the style. I personally feel that nothing is out of place on Ubuntu and everything blends together to create a dramatic and kaleidoscopic sound.

The vocals are also excellent, being of the high pitched blackish variety they complement the music nicely. The occasional usage of clean vocals also adds nicely to the music, they’re not cheesy or whiny and suit the style perfectly. The lyrics are also excellently written; dealing with subjects such as love, sorrow, darkness and death they’re definitely worth the read.

It’s really hard to find something to dislike about Ubuntu, although all the criticisms about it’s over the top delivery are legitimate I find that it adds to the music rather than takes away from it. Ubuntu is an unashamedly epic and over the top album that takes great pleasure in being dramatic and pompous. If you’re opposed to the use of symphonic elements in your metal then you will no doubt hate this as Ubuntu is about as symphonic and dramatic as one can get, even surpassing the level bands like Carach Angren and Dimmu Borgir have reached. It astounds me how Kälter haven’t got a sizeable fan base when they’re putting out music as breath-taking and incredible as this. However this makes the music much more special to me as I’m one of the few who’s had the pleasure of listening to it. Ubuntu is definitely worth the time and effort to hunt down, it’s an excellent album and one that shouldn’t be missed by symphonic metal aficionados.