When I saw the album cover for Norway’s She Said Destroy’s debut full length offering Time Like Vines, my immediate thought was "Oh great, more emo shit! To the bottom of the promo pile you go!" Of course the problem with putting albums at the bottom of the pile is when it’s time to review, those discs eventually make their way back to the top. After taking a deep breath, I tossed this album in my CD player and braced myself for suckage.

What came out of my speakers surprised me. I was expecting dull material by a band full of spiky haired douche bags, but it’s actually some pretty heavy stuff. While the majority of bands from Norway stick to the "Norwegian sound", She Said Destroy found inspiration from elsewhere, namely from the United States and Sweden. The material has a thick and meaty guitar tone, with a number of lengthy, but interesting songs.

The amount of variety in the music is impressive with tracks switching between melodic viking death metal chugging guitars, to black metal blasts melodies, to American death metal riffs to jazz stylings, there’s a lot going on this effort. The song writing is varied and catchy and the music is well played. This is definitely one of the most aggressive melodic extreme metal albums I’ve heard in recent years.

A lot of people may be put off by the band’s lack of singular musical direction, but a lot of people are complete wastes of flesh. Personally, I like this album a lot more than I thought I would. The catchy, heavy, yet melodic material makes for great background material, I don’t think it’s something I’m going to listen to religiously, but I’m glad I gave it a listen and I’m sure I’ll be listening to it again! It’s an album worth checking out if you’re a fan of Amon Amarth and Cannibal Corpse-flavored melodic death metal.

Written By: Teufel