Browsing the depths of the metal scene, with the blink of an eye this album cover threw me back to my youthful years. Perhaps it once adorned my Nuclear Blast Records magazine? I was exposed to so much great music through that free mail-in mag. Scarve also happen to fit right into the European scene of that era. Perhaps best labeled as the "Future Fusion Metal" genre that never quite took hold, they sound like a soft fusion of early Mnemic and Meshuggah with touches of classic Darkane in their melodic musicality. All these bands I adore, Its no surprise I had little trouble taking a liking to Irradiant, the second album a brief existence that ended a few years later.
Pulling from the power and menace of Metal in its extreme forms, French musicians Scarve stretch apart those frays, extrapolating melody and dissonance through shifts in momentum. Thus its songs explore the ridges of aggression, flirting with rhythmic experimentation and quite often retreating into calmer spells to introduce metallic acoustic guitar melodies or unusual lurches of "the riff". In some instances they go hard, like the Death Metal inspired pummel and pound of a vicious Molten Scars. On the following Fireproven, we unseemingly drift into an Industrial atmospheric break to showcase some lead guitar flair before flashes of color erupt in a magnetic closing riff.
These complexities and technical nature delight but have a simplistic appeal on the surface. The best songs deal with the collapse of aggression they march from the relentless into curious expanses of atmosphere. Asphyxiate plays a highlight, starting off with a meaty Meshuggah chug riff and eventually featuring a solo from the legend Fredrik Thordendal himself. Irradiant is an all round excellent showcase of boundary pushing songwriting, at least for the time. A delightful discovery slipping into my nostalgic sweet spot. Highly recommended for fans of the early "Djent" frontier.
Rating: 7/10