Portugal’s The Firstborn is a band who I’d never heard of prior to receiving a promotional copy of their The Unclenching Of Fists album in the mail. Having never heard of the band, and reading through their bio and finding the album is a "conceptual" release dealing with "Tantric Buddhism" based on the Tibetan "Book Of The Dead", I have to admit I was completely thrown off and really wasn’t sure what was going to be assaulting my ear drums.

First of all, before I get into reviewing the album, I’d like to comment on something I’ve read in several reviews of this effort; Portugal is not a South American country, it is the Western-most European country off the mainland which borders on Spain. Now that I’ve established that metal reviewers of the world couldn’t tell their dick from their elbow, I will progress into reviewing the actual album.

The Unclenching Of Fists is a very difficult album to categorize as their sound doesn’t really fit into any specific genre. The band’s roots lay in black metal, but they aren’t a pure black metal band in the slightest as they bring forth an Eastern-based vibe, somewhat along the lines of Nile, but with an Asiatic sound, rather than Egyptian. There are a lot of thick heavy death metal riffs, mixed amongst black metal riffs and even a few power metal and prog-metal riffs, plus a slew of guitar solos throughout.

The drumming is solid, though not overwhelming, laying a steady beat that flows with the music, regardless of whether it’s blasting, traditional Eastern beats or just straight up death metal mashing. The vocals are just as varied as the rest with Bruno Fernandes covering just about every style available in metal; from a deep death metal boom, to a black metal rasp, to a clean vocal style, to a Dave Mustaine-like wail, to, well, you get the idea.

The entire album is fused with the sounds of the East. Nearly every track includes some sitar use, as well as traditional Eastern drums and the raspy hums and wailing standard in Tibetan chant. Sometimes the blend is seamless and fits the music perfectly, but other times it just doesn’t quite seem right.

The Firstborn’s The Unclenching Of Fists is exactly as they stated it would be in the bio; it’s a conceptual metal album fused with traditional Buddhist sounds. It’s definitely one of the most original metal albums I’ve come across in quite a long time, however, the album is rather unfocused and it seems as though the band is trying to cover too many styles on one effort and it often comes across a little scattered at times. I actually find it very difficult to listen to the album beginning to end as my interest starts to wane midway through. I think if the band were to stick to fusing the Asian vibe with 2 or 3 metal styles, rather than 5 or 6, it would work out a lot better.

This album is definitely not going to surpass other groups who fuse extreme metal with traditional influences, like Lykathea Aflame or Nile, but The Firstborn are definitely a talented group and seem to be on the right path. The album isn’t the most enjoyable or entertaining around, but its uniqueness may make it a worthy purchase for those wanting to check out something a little different. Personally, I don’t think I’ll be listening to this album much, if at all, now that I’ve reviewed it, but it definitely doesn’t suck, it’s just… different.

Written By: Teufel