Ambrotype is a one-man progressive rock/metal project from Syria by Mr. Adel Saflou. The band had recently released a full-length album called The Revelations in which we have reviewed earlier here. But today, we’re going in detail over the anatomy of a particular song from the album. ‘I Am The Beast’.
First of all, the track featured some guests with various roles. The drums were programmed by ‘Rafi Fakes’, ‘Jawdat Al-Atasi’, a guest guitarist who wrote and played the first solo. Also, ‘Rafi Fakes’ wrote and played the second solo as a guest guitarist as well. The rest are written and played by ‘Adel’ himself. So let’s talk about the music.
The track starts off with guitars riffing, then followed by the drums and a growl that marks the beginning of the song. The riffs starts getting really progressive, the time signatures shift repeatedly, unconventional drum breaks with ‘Adel’ growling the lyrics and then going back to the main riff that seems a little bit oriental to my taste. You have to focus in order to observe the drum lines; they are so tricky. The aggressive mood of the track takes a strange turn with the acoustics starting with a sensational drum line. Clean vocals filled with despair and a gloomy atmosphere dominating the track. Moving on, a really sensual guitar solo kicks in, hitting all the right notes for the atmosphere combined with synths in the background.
The distorted palm muted guitars starts playing once more in sync with the bass drums giving out a really punchy intro that felt highly influenced by oriental music. Growling vocals packed with a commanding tone sings along the pounding guitars and drums. The atmosphere of the track is filled with so much hatred and violence; you can feel it clearly in the part in which he growls “liar” several times with a rising anger tone. Then the riffing starts with one magnificent harmonized guitar solo with lots of bends and pitch harmonics it just takes you on a path of emotions. Then the mood of the song changes again into a really doom-ish atmosphere. Seriously, the guitar riffing and drums of that part is a lot like a traditional doom/death band. Followed by a guitar solo to end this part and allowing the mood to change for one last time with acoustic guitars. Leading up to a really peaceful acoustic guitar outro with atmospheric synths feeling a little bit dreamy.
‘I Am The Beast’ is the 4th part of the fable sung and told of The Revelations. It speaks of betrayal, grudge, and fear of perpetual loneliness. It is such a sad and angry tune. Yet, it is a beautiful masterpiece that definitely deserves to be among my personal favorites for this band. An overall review would be ‘Job well done’. I liked the variety of the guitars throughout the entire thing, the guitar solos are absolutely marvelous, the vocals delivered the feeling of the track just as it should be and the drumlines are truly progressive.
I believe that this song represents Ambrotype perfectly, highly consistent with most of their songs as a progressive metal/rock band.
Edited by: NJ Bakr
