Absolute Purity - Alas

Alas, here we have another death metal guitarist setting up a side project to extend his repertoire, when he should have stuck to his day job. And being guitarist for Hate Eternal, after spending considerable time with Morbid Angel, is pretty cool as far as day jobs go. Alas is Erik Rutan's one-off (so far) operatic progressive metal project, which essentially means slowed-down melodic death metal riffs over stilted drums, with a shrieking woman placed on top. These projects can sometimes work very well, as was the case for Cynic spin-off Aghora, but here it falls rather flat, and becomes increasingly tedious as the album plods along. Rutan's riffs and solos ...