Review by Ryan Murray | January 23, 202
Gentihaa’s “Reverse Entropy” is a brutal assault on your senses! This album is difficult to place under any specific sub genre of metal, but has got it all musically – from thrash riffs, to metalcore, to extreme metal, to symphonic metal. Vocally it’s a mix between brutal vocals to melodic metal vocals. As described by the band, the vocalist André is dealing with a story. “Lyrically, André is dealing with a story found in a well-hidden corner of the web, dealing with 8 pills that give different “super powers” to 8 random individuals, leading them to the distant future just to find out that the Earth is destroyed, and then all of them trying to reverse the entropy with the help of the master (Alpha) through the guidance of the one (Singularity).”
Serum – The opening track is an instrumental and gives you a feel of where this album will go on the melodic metal side. The guitars in harmonies kick in at :16 seconds in and then drums at :37 to give it a heavier feel. It’s time to take a journey to the future!
Empathy – This track kicks off with kind of a thrash/metal core feel right away! The melodic vocals in this song easily remind me of Symphony X. The intro gives me an “All That Remains” vibe. The vocals are a mix between melodic and brutal throughout. For me, this song talks about the destruction that will come in the future from a lack of empathy.
“No one is fully mindful
Of each one’s perfect structure
She’s the one who can truly see it
Holding on to sanity.”
To me, this speaks to the human condition. None of us at any given time is ever really fully mindful of others. As humans, we all tend to slip into a pattern of apathy. With empathy, this allows us to hold on to sanity because we step out of ourselves and we put others ahead of ourselves.
Vision – This song starts out a bit more dirge like with a demonic like speaking of lyrics. There’s a lot of orchestral strings in the background of this track and I really like what that adds! This song, for me, speaks to the fact that as humans, when we’re empathetic towards others, we want to help save others from their apathy and selfishness. Try as we may though, we can’t change people.
“Swore to myself that I’d save all of you
But things humans can do were never enough
Swore to myself I’ll reverse entropy
So I’m seeking God no one else it can be.”
This line speaks to me a lot. As a Christian, I rely on my relationship with God to get me through everything. I find that God helps me to ‘reverse entropy’ whenever I feel a lack of order to things. When things around us seem to be confusing and lacking purpose, we can turn to God for purpose and meaning. The song seems to agree with that in the line “so I’m seeking God no one else it can be.”
Metamorphosis – This song starts out a bit softer, but doesn’t stay that way when the guitars kick in at :29. The tempo is down just a bit on this song, but that doesn’t take away from the power. This song, for me, talks about the bondage of having enemies, which once again can lead to destruction.
“Fantasy
Becoming alive
Enemy
Everyone I find
Reality
Suddenly it hits me
I am free
From the human chains“
It seems we have a choice of either living in a fantasy or living in reality. More than that, we can also make our reality free of the human chains of apathy.
Alpha – This one starts off light, but doesn’t last long until the heavy groove kicks in! Absolutely love the backing strings in this track! This song has some metalcore and thrash beats. This song, for me, talks about how important it is to be careful with what we do with our time here on earth, and that if we aren’t careful, we’ll wake up to realize that we’ve wasted our time with the things that don’t really matter.
“Woke up one day and there it was
The life I lost in my palms
When she touched me with her hands
I knew I’d give my life for her”
What will we do with our time here? If we aren’t careful, we’ll wake up to see that we did nothing of importance. We need to wake up and step out of apathy and into empathy.
Beyond – An ethereal intro gives way to some brutal riffs! This song, at times reminds me of Cradle of Filth/Dimmu Borgir musically. For me, this song is about looking everywhere, far and wide for anything to set us free from destruction. Looking “way across the galaxy for anything that will set her free.”
“My Lord
God save us all
We’re all alone
We are all alone
If only you told me what to do
God save us all
If only you showed me the way to
We are all alone.”
To me, this is about looking in the wrong places for guidance and direction. If we chose to look in the wrong places, we feel alone and ignored. If we look to God to save us all from apathy and destruction, we can escape the human chains.
Command – This is an interesting song. The guitar parts in the beginning are melodic and harmonizing, but heavy! A lot of brutal/heavy vocals throughout as well. At about 1:57 however, there’s a nice acoustic sounding part with cleaner vocals.
“You will be my eternal slave
Give me yourself we will be here forever.”
This, to me, speaks about being an eternal slave to time. If we let time use us, instead of us using our time wisely, we can very easily end up stuck forever with a wasted life, waking up one day and wondering what happened with our time. This is all about the choices we make.
Mastery – This song starts off a bit slower then the previous track, but still has an epic sound to it right from the start. A lot of tremolo picking throughout gives it a death metal vibe, but with some clean vocals too. This song, to me, is about those of us who put ourselves over others with our thoughts and actions. Those of us who make ourselves out to be better than everyone else. These types of people seem to be more and more prevalent and could lead to destruction in our future.
“He’s tired of all the
Incompetence of the World
Bow before me
You bunch of lowly ants.”
This line, to me, speaks about people who think they are better than others. Those who act this way tend to tear others down with their words and actions.
I personally have dealt with people like this. People who are toxic and feel that they are better than everyone else. People who can’t accept blame for how they are, but instead they blame it on others. People who think they can never do any wrong. It’s toxic people like that that lead to others’ self destruction. We need to make the choice to distance ourselves from people like that and not allow them to break us down.
Singularity – The final track. This track starts out with an acoustic sound and clean vocals. At about 1:50, the guitars and drums really kick in and the brutal vocals come in. Getting a glimpse into the future through the singularity, one sees a future controlled by machines. For me, this song is about the technological strides we’ve made, and how our reliance on artificial intelligence, while a good thing, can also be bad if we aren’t careful.
“I control
The machine of mankind
I will rule
I have the power to control
And to rule
The machine of mankind
I am the singularity.”
Artificial intelligence is all around us. Smart TV’s, Smart Phones, Siri, Alexa and so much more. Technology is a good thing when we use it as a tool, but we need to be careful because while technology is a positive tool, it can quickly takeover us. Instead of the technology being a slave to us, we become slaves to technology.
While I had never heard of Gentihaa before, this album was absolutely worth a listen! This album combines all sorts of metal – from metalcore, thrash, extreme and symphonic metal, as well as brutal and melodic vocals. “Reverse Entropy” also has a lot of harmonizing guitars and orchestral strings in the background. (which I always love!)
I give this album 3.5 out of 5.0 stars. If you haven’t listened to “Reverse Entropy” by Genthiaa, please be sure to give it a listen!
