Binary Music is the second album by Swedish melodic hard rock band Palace named from frontman and multi instrumentalist Michael Palace. This is another album straight from the Frontier Records melodic rock production line but this album is actually really good. The sound is very 80’s influenced almost bordering on an 80’s pop sound at times with a huge amount of retro sounding synths making this album sound like it was recorded in 1987. The songwriting is fantastic on the whole and irresistibly catching with songs such as Tears Of Gaia, Promised Land and Dangerous Ground proving themselves to be absolute earworms. The album does lose a bit of steam towards the end with Who’s Counting Time being a very disposable ballad and the unusual Queen Of The Prom sticking out like a sore thumb but the sheer quality of the first half guarantees this album a good score. People musically still living in the 80’s and the AOR hordes are going to absolutely love this. A very fun enjoyable album. 8/10
Violblast: Theater Of Despair (Hostile Nation -2019) [Rich]
Violblast are a thrash metal band hailing from Spain and Theater Of Despair is their second album. Like fellow Spanish thrashers Angelus Apatrida, Violblast know their craft as Theater Of Despair is an excellent thrash metal album. It takes cues from the American and European thrash scenes combining the best elements from both with a sound that is equally catchy as it is vicious. Frontman Andrés Perez has a vicious vocal style with a style very reminiscent of German thrash frontmen Schmier of Destruction and Tom Angelripper of Sodom which works very well with the aggressive music on display. The album is well paced and nicely varied with mid paced numbers such as the stomping The Shadow No Longer Rests and the atmospheric New Orphans Elegy to the raging speed metal assault of Martyrs Without A Cause, Painless and Secret Reality. Although not groundbreaking this is simply a great thrash album with a great frantic energy about it, bags of aggression and memorable tunes. 8/10
Shading: The Vanishing of Our Lore (Self Released) [Alex]
Progressive metalcore is in a strange way, the closest proggy music even close to the mainstream, as well as being grossly inaccessible to lots of metal fans. Even Shading who on their second album, take a melodic and melancholic approach, are subject to the label. Whether you think they are worthy of that description or not, there is no denying they have a unique take on the idea, playing with atmosphere, theatricality, and emotionality, to vibrant effect.
Rather than begin on the typical blast beats and a punishing guitar riff, Abyss sets in on swaying synths before a tidal wave of dramatic instrumentation crashes in, embracing the values of tension and changeability from start to finish. Breathless makes a little more use of downtuning while staying deeply emotional, a combination of slowed tempos, gorgeous melodies and charming transitions making for an intriguing listen. The multifaceted aspects don’t stop there either as Convergence constitutes a rich and detailed anthem. Worldwalker beautifully utilizes musical textures and The Scent rejoices in its elaborate complexities.
Perhaps the best moments here though come with Stranger – an aching ballad, not afraid to embrace patience and restraint – and Weak Signal – an epic closer, encapsulating everything which this an excellent release not only for Shading, or even prog but for the progressive metal as a genre. Debates have ravaged and endured about the style, and the value crunchy guitars and blast beats bring to a subgenre commonly associated with composition and intricacy. My view, as something of a Djent-defender, is that The Vanishing of Our Lore has the potential to introduce some much-needed nuance to the debates, by creating a work which melds the elements of visceral aggression and contemplative beauty. 8/10
Swallow The Sun: Lumina Aurea (Century Media) [Matt]
We don't review singles, we won't review singles however life is full of exceptions and this is one. The standalone-single Lumina Aurea is being released as a preface to Swallow The Sun's new album When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light which is due in January. Despite it being standalone both these releases are two halves of a whole. It features Wardruna’s Einar Selvik and The Foreshadowing’s Marco I. Benevento and is the darkest most brooding piece of music Swallow The Sun have put their name too. Think of it as an elongated introduction to the forthcoming full length, a sinister foreboding precursor to the more positive A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light which will see them move away from the ambience here back to the epic doom metal they are renown for. An interesting preamble that builds the anticipation. 7/10
Swallow The Sun: Lumina Aurea (Century Media) [Matt]
We don't review singles, we won't review singles however life is full of exceptions and this is one. The standalone-single Lumina Aurea is being released as a preface to Swallow The Sun's new album When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light which is due in January. Despite it being standalone both these releases are two halves of a whole. It features Wardruna’s Einar Selvik and The Foreshadowing’s Marco I. Benevento and is the darkest most brooding piece of music Swallow The Sun have put their name too. Think of it as an elongated introduction to the forthcoming full length, a sinister foreboding precursor to the more positive A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light which will see them move away from the ambience here back to the epic doom metal they are renown for. An interesting preamble that builds the anticipation. 7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment