Metal Underground.com

Isn't it weird how some songs that speed along at a million miles per hour feel like they're going nowhere? Unfortunately, that feeling permeates an awful lot of the tracks on The Famine's latest album, "The Architects Of Guilt."

Taking over for departed growler Kris McCaddon is the band's former bassist, Nick Nowell, who delivers the death tones quite convincingly on tracks like "Pyrithion House" and "The Crown And The Holy See," with a tone that, while never "clean," has a near-melodic quality nonetheless.

Andrew Godwin's a more-than capable soloist, adding interesting textures to tracks like "Ad Mortem." Unfortunately, what often winds up happening is that when the band makes the jump to lightspeed, his guitar parts get lost amid Mark Garza's admittedly speedy, but otherwise unimpressive drumming ("We Are The Wolves" and "The New Hell" are among the most notable offenders). Surprisingly (this is death metal after all), you do manage to pick up snippets of the band's new bassist, Jonny Richardson, particularly in the opening of "Turner Classic Diaries."

There are a couple of genuinely excellent tracks on the disc. "A Pavement Of Good Intentions" has a great blend of speed and rhythm, punctuated by some excellent chugging guitar work. The album's slowest track, "To The Teeth," has an almost Pantera-like groove, and features Garza's best drumming.

On "The Architects Of Guilt," The Famine often misses the mark when it comes to the balance between speed, aggression and melody. The end result is that songs often start strong and then descend into noise.