The Breathing Process - Odyssey (Un) Dead (2010)

Siege of Amida Records, March 8, 2010

Tracklist

1. Hours
2. Grimoire
3. Leveller
4. Vultures
5. Pantheon Unravelling
6. Odyssey: (Un)dead
7. Starless: Eternal
8. Metamorphosis
9. Hordes
10. The Living Forest
11. Wind Ritual
12. The Opaque Forest
13. Decaying Form

This entry is one in a series of ten-year retrospectives on my favorite albums from the year 2010. Odyssey was one album that stood out to me primarily for branching out and sounding different. This Pennsylvania-based band is a good example of a relatively obscure group bringing European-inspired gothic and symphonic metal influence to an American death metal/deathcore style and pulling it off successfully.  

The keyboards played by Jared Sloan are prominent and bring a gothic undertone to the sound of The Breathing Process. Throughout the album, the keyboards alternate from a background instrument underlying the guitars to moments where they are a primary focus. The sung sections from clean vocalist Sara Loerlein further strengthen the atmosphere. I particularly like the fourth song “Vultures”, which is the first track she appears on. From then on she has a prominent role in the album and is the primary vocalist in the song “Wind Ritual”. “Vultures” has a excellent balance between Sara’s vocals and the low growls from John LaFreniere, and does a fine job showcasing the two sides of the band’s sound.

Odyssey is a pretty solid release from 2010. One area where it could improve is in consistency. There are some songs where the keyboards and other gothic metal elements don't mesh as well with the death metal ones. That being said, while the symphonic/death metal combination has been done before, it is clear that the band made an effort to be their own entity rather than following trends. This sense of nuance was refreshing in a year where many death metal and deathcore albums followed a formula to the letter, and thus it earns a score of 7/10.