Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s Reviews
Ah Meshuggah, the inventors of djent, a genre that is extremely laughable by the metal community. Some of those people don't think it's a valid genre, let alone a metal genre. Even the Metal Archives don't consider djent metal enough to be on that website, and the only reason this band is in that site is because of this album. EXCUSE ME!? Djent is a direct descendant of progressive metal! Are down-tuned guitar chords, syncopated riffs, and poly-metric soloing "not metal" to you? Or is it because of the majority of metalcore bands (instead of progressive metal) using the djent sound? I don't know... But for this album, Contradictions Collapse, the band did not invent djent yet and had more of a technical thrash style. I never really consider Contradictions Collapse the worst, it's actually a pretty fun listen. Creative solos, cool lyrics, and heavy moments that can be achieved without having to use breakdowns. Some of the most fun 90s thrash I've heard in a while!
Within the upward spiral-bound sound is the vocal style of Jens Kidman (NOT to be confused with that hot YouTube guitarist Lens Kidman, A.K.A. Elena Verrier). Shouting is kind of a necessary benefit in the rougher side of metal, and Jens does a really good job keeping his shouts in the same level as a drill sergeant and the Pantera singer Phil Anselmo. With Jens getting a lot better at shouting and hardcore-screaming, if the band moved on without any of the djent they invented, they would pretty much just be a technical death/hardcore band. Jens' vocals at that time really accompany the album really well. They're not totally bad, but the album's old-school feel can really cover up anything that would go wrong in a newer album. He can still hold up his screams well. Not bad, not bad...
"Paralyzing Ignorance" kicks off the album and the band in a catchy start, with charging riffs and an explosive chorus. "Erroneous Manipulation" is another infectious piece with literally the last minute of it being a triumphant harmonized guitar melody, one more shouting verse, and a glorious scream to end the song. But the lyrics there are absolutely ridiculous, and they're not even what is actually being sung. Lots of absurd animal metaphors!! What do they even mean!? But the lyrics in "Abnegating Cecity" are way better, having some possible references to heroin. The solos in that song along with "Internal Evidence" really establish a unique guitar blueprint, even back then.
"Qualms of Reality" has a perfect acoustic break, a smooth move before leading into the explosive mosh-inducing finale with more gang shouts. "We'll Never See the Day" has a killer headbanging riff in the first 30 seconds that can hit harder than a battering ram in the b*lls. But that sitar near the end though, like WHAT!?! "Greed" is an OK song, but it almost served as the album's title track, because the album was originally going to be titled "(All This Because of) Greed" before settling on its current name.
The acoustic intro in "Choirs of Devastation" sounds a little out of place, along with the spoken monotone of drummer Tomas Haake. But at least that's a more experimental song than the others here, with what may be some of the earliest examples of the djent sound that was yet to come. "Cadaverous Mastication" is a great final track, re-recorded from the band's 1989 demo EP. A thrashy example of proto-extreme metal, viciously hacking in with gang shouts and hammering riffs before a melodic ethereal solo. Then more speed and aggression picks up and finally the main melodic riff keeps playing until the song fades out. Probably the best Meshuggah song from that era!
Good vocals, bass, and guitars, with the drumming almost reaching its pinnacle! Mixing is a little grimy, giving the album more somewhat industrial production. Lyrics are good, but more lyrical assembly required. Overall, not a totally bad record at all! It's the thrashy calm before the djent storm....
Favorites: Paralyzing Ignorance, Qualms of Reality, Cadaverous Mastication
New Wave of American Heavy Metal is a metal movement that has been both shrinking and growing in the mid-2010s. A few new bands come in, some pioneering bands are still around like Lamb of God and Machine Head, and other old bands end up splitting up. Some of the split-up bands disband permanently like God Forbid (Why?! They were so awesome!) and Chimaira (except for a one-time reunion), while others like Bleeding Through have a few-year hiatus and come back with more material. Sadly, Shadows Fall had to go as well. Well, not go away forever, but just end up taking an extensive hiatus, with their last shows as late as 2015/2016. I really hope they reunite soon and, even better, reunite with former vocalist Phil Labonte, while still keeping Brian Fair, to play some songs from the Somber Eyes to the Sky era. Wishful thinking, but possible....
After the more intense and thrashy sound of Threads of Life and Retribution, Fire From the Sky is what I believe to be a full return to their successful equal balance to thrash and metalcore. Many of the band members have upped the game to insanely greater levels, including drummer Jason Bittner with his impressive double-bass rolls and brilliant blast beats. The songs themselves are up to their essential standards, putting together a well-arranged album.
The album starts off perfectly with "The Unknown" one of the best Shadows Fall songs ever. Shredding licks, a singable chorus, dual vocals, and superb song structuring, this song has them all and is how a lot of the album goes. "Divide and Conquer" continues this momentum with an infectious refreshing groove. Brian Fair has some dreadfully (in a clever way) pronounced vocals in "Weight of the World".
"Nothing Remains" shows a great obvious example of dual vocal attack. The title track is a more outstanding song with a dark atmosphere and touches of death metal, bringing back some melodeath memories. It equally balances out shred and groove, along with singing and screaming. "Save Your Soul" and "Blind Faith" has a good amount of speed, with the latter song being the album's over 6-minute epic. After the intro building up from acoustic to electric, the song unleashes a sonic wave after wave of melodious guitars and heated vocals.
"Lost Within" has some massive fast drumming matching the guitar shredding, really surpassing their earlier material. "Walk the Edge" is a great song, but unfortunately, their least original song too. Vocals range from raspy growls to heartened verses, but too many guitar riffs and solos stolen from Retribution. The drum work is a bit more mellow but still solid and thrashy. "The Wasteland" turns things around and is a great ending to the album and the band...for now.
This is a great record that works well with both long-time fans and new listeners. If the band decides to completely end and this becomes their final album, this would be the best to be saved for last. I just hope the band will still be around, they're truly a great band. Shadows Fall, please come back soon.....
Favorites: "The Unknown", "Nothing Remains", "Fire From the Sky", "Blind Faith", "Lost Within", "The Wasteland"
The previous Shadows Fall album, Threads of Life has a lot of thrash in their sound while keeping some metalcore. But for this one, their sixth studio effort (not including compilation Fallout From the War), Retribution, the sound is faster, heavier, and bringing back a bit more metalcore overpowering some of the thrash. Drummer Jason Bittner said that some songs are darker and angrier with lots of heaviness, crazy guitar, and "room for me to have some fun".
Shadows Fall is a band reigning in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, together with other bands such as Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage. Shadows Fall might not sound like a mainstream metalcore band but those guys never want to sound like a clone band. They still maintain their thrash-metalcore originality! Retribution is an album to love 90%. Only one or two songs in the album have breakdowns but many songs here have decent clean singing, killer drumming, and riffs from their old-school melodic death metal past. Pretty much ever song has at least one fast, brutal, or melodic guitar solo, which solo lovers would surely enjoy.
Sometimes, interludes work better as the intro to an album instead of smack in the middle, like this album's intro, "The Path to Imminent Ruin". Then it segues into "My Demise", a memorable 7-minute track with good variations, including well-written lyrics, plus a deep acoustic part in the middle and a rare breakdown.
"Still I Rise" is less impressive and weaker than some songs but still has some good points thanks to its heaviness and more driven chorus. "War" is a sonic thrash rudiment that is clearly inspired by 80s Slayer. "King of Nothing" manages to be a heavier and more enjoyable song with an irresistible chorus featuring guest vocals by Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe. He's an awesome vocalist, so anyone here who doesn't like his vocals, as I quote from the lyrics, "Quit your f***ing crying!!" "The Taste of Fear" and "Picture Perfect" slump the most due to the attempted use of backing vocals that's a little too much, not that it would necessarily ruin the tracks, but still not fitting. At least the track between those two, "Embrace Annihilation", makes up for that with full-band gang vocals that fit much better.
The last two tracks are a couple more songs that surpass 6 minutes in length. The former song, "A Public Execution" once again unleashes the band's well-known heavy thrash metal/metalcore wrath, and is one of the best songs of the album, maybe one of the best by the band. The last track, "Dead and Gone" retains the heavy nature, but adds some more melodic backing vocals that aren't as prominent as the lead vocals here.
Retribution is a more polished album with good strong vocals. This is another thrash album with some more metalcore elements, despite the lack of good breakdowns, and has some brilliant solos like the ones from their good old days of melodeath. Shadows Fall fans would not be disappointed by this album. Automatically worth it!
Favorites: "My Demise", "War", "King of Nothing", "Embrace Annihilation", "A Public Execution", "Dead and Gone"
Shadows Fall had really brought themselves to fame with the thrash metalcore sound of their previous two albums, The Art of Balance and The War Within. But for this album, Threads of Life, the band decided to make their sound more thrashy while still keeping some metalcore. That's what Trivium kind of did with their third album The Crusade. So yeah, this is Shadows Fall's Crusade!
This release basically has a little more thrash than every bit of metalcore. The aggression overshadows the lightness. Some of the more thrashy parts include great riffs, blazing solos, pounding drums, and aggressive vocals. The headbanging riffs are faster and heavier than metalcore, although the song still have metalcore parts.
"Redemption" is a nice way to start the album with decent riffs. Songs "Burning the Lives" and "Storm Winds" are fine but don't exactly stand out with enough excitement. "Failure of the Devout" has a nice thrashy riff. That song, along with "Venomous", both have memorable and awesome solos that I love to hear and any guitarist can play.
"Another Hero Lost" is a good way to break up the intensity of the album. A hard rock ballad single with good lyrics, great vocals, and a crushing solo, it was written in memory of Brain Fair's late cousin, a soldier in Iraq. "Final Call" is a typical metalcore song with the type of intro, vocals, and breakdowns usually found in metalcore. I like this song and metalcore in general, but it doesn't fit well with this thrash album. Now about "Dread Uprising", have you heard its solo?!? Listen to it, it's so melodically brutal!!
"The Great Collapse" is a short classical-sounding interlude with a nice atmosphere. "Just Another Nightmare" has some bass that is sometimes heard, sometimes lost. "Forevermore" has an acoustic interlude as awesome as the rest of the song right before ending the album with one more chorus and riff-powered outro.
Overall, despite the sound being more thrashy than metalcore, this album is still worth it and further proves Shadows Fall's dominance in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. They still manage to keep metalcore drilling into listeners' ears deeper than the earth's core. Even with that album's thrashy sound, luckily it seems like Shadows Fall would eventually be going in a better direction with their next release Retribution loading up some faster heavier thrash-metalcore than before. See ya in the next review....
Favorites: "Redemption", "Failure of the Devout", "Venomous", "Another Hero Lost", "Dread Uprising", "Forevermore"
Although I think all their best material has been crammed into the previous Shadows Fall album The Art of Balance, the real success came in with their fourth album The War Within, selling over 300,000 copies worldwide and becoming the best selling album by both the band and their label Century Media Records. This has very well been a turning point in the band's history!
Originally, Shadows Fall had a melodic death metal sound in their songs, but I guess becoming more of a thrash metalcore band has totally paid off. This album really does sound as metal as what many bands in the metal side of metalcore would do, but I still think it doesn't top off the thrash metalcore glory of The Art of Balance.
"The Light That Blinds" opens the album perfectly with a short acoustic intro, then the song itself follows with heavy, pounding rhythms, awesome guitar work, and a memorable catchy chorus. The following track, "Enlightened by the Cold" is one of my personal favorites, showing a lot of heavy riffing, incredible soloing, and another catchy chorus, all in just barely over 3 minutes. "Act of Contrition" has an excellent riff in the middle.
"What Drives the Weak" is another catchy track with some clean guitar breaks with, quoted from the lyrics, "a controlled dose of tranquillity". "Stillness" has a modern taste that should appeal to the youngsters (Did I just say the word "youngsters"? I ain't old!). "Inspiration on Demand" is a heavy but more mid-tempo song with some moving, beautiful ballad-like verses that flashback to the title track of their previous album. "The Power of I and I" is indeed a powerful track with pulverizing rhythms. "Ghosts of Past Failures" is a pretty good song but does not sound very memorable and convincing, nor have as much power as the previous songs.
Things get more brilliant and much less anti-climatic toward the end of the album, with the next-to-last track "Eternity is Within", another very powerful song with outstanding drum work and awesome guitar solos. As if the acoustic melody that started "The Light That Blinds" wasn't enough, the last song "Those Who Cannot Speak" starts with another acoustic intro then immediately crashes into a song that hearkens back to the band's melodic death metal past. This song is slightly similar to "A Fire in Babylon" (including that song's prelude), but with faster and heavier structure and solos. A great way to bring this album to a close!
The War Within may have been a slight letdown compared to the awesomeness of The Art of Balance, but it still has some much better stuff than the band's younger melodeath selves. I can see why this album is so darn popular. I would recommend this to any true metalhead. Go get this album! You'll never regret it....
Favorites: "Enlightened by the Cold", "What Drives the Weak", "Inspiration on Demand", "The Power of I and I", "Eternity is Within", "Those Who Cannot Speak"
After the melodeath/metalcore sound of their first 2 albums, Shadows Fall decided to switch to the thrash metalcore they would later be known for, with their third album The Art of Balance. This is honestly a little similar to Trivium's move to a more thrashy sound on their third album the Crusade. One of the bigger differences is, the new thrashy sound is highly enjoyable and fits very well with the band, and that caused the band to reach a higher peak of fame and completely abandon their old melodeath sound. This new original style is pretty much what Shadows Fall fans are into now!
While Somber Eyes to the Sky and Of One Blood display a great flair of harmonizing guitar work and crushing riff wrath of Swedish-sounding melodic death metal, the guitar work in The Art of Balance really helped build the band's sound with the speed and rhythm of American thrash metal. Jon Donais throws in some sweet elements of technical soloing together with commanding riffs. A couple acoustic interludes were put into the album with very serene soundscapes as a good way to take a break from the extreme intensity. The band's sound has reached new heights with its thrash metalcore being found as "the perfect balance between melody and aggression". New drummer Jason Bittner lays down some awesome drumming you would typically hear in thrash metal and Brian's Fair voice has really taken consistent distinctive shape.
The album kicks off in a vicious bang with "Idle Hands", one of the most heaviness-focused songs on the album, containing death metal like riffs on guitars and bass, along with a Megadeth-inspired solo. "Thoughts Without Words" is another heavy song with thrash riffs and a very memorable chorus. There's also some good harmonized solo shredding and a killer breakdown at the end. "Destroyer of Senses" is faster and more thrashy than those first two songs, but a little simplistic and repetitive. Brain Fair does some guttural screaming in the slow sludgy part. "Casting Shade" is a beautiful, melodic, acoustic interlude that works as nice break from all that sheer aggression.
"Stepping Outside the Circle" is one of the best songs of the album with lots of amazing thrash. Riffs, time changes, gang vocals, all nothing but pure 100% thrash, with a capital TH. But at least there's a nice clean part and nice soloing. The title track is an epic ballad-like but still thrashy song. The song gets soft at first with emotional clean vocals, then the heavier riffs come out with Fair's brutal vocals. Then a clean part comes in along with a great solo. "Mystery of One Spirit" is another thrashy song with a lot of emphasis on guitar. The lyrics are really cool here and the screams sometimes get a little black metal snarly. Then things get kicked up with an epic power metal solo. "The Idiot Box" is another heavy thrash song with heavy riffs and angry political lyrics. The drumming works really well, especially in the cool breakdown at the end.
"Prelude to Disaster" is another acoustic interlude, and as the title would imply, would set you up for a disastrously awesome thrash epic. That epic is "A Fire in Babylon", an astonishing attempt in making a 7-minute epic (probably the longest song ever made by the band). It begins with some crazy pinch harmonics. The vocals vary a lot (clean, growling, screaming, shouting), all fitting perfectly in pure greatness. The bass sometimes does a counter melody and there's some heavy and melodic soloing. This is basically an amazing complex power/thrash metal song, and it is the best on the album and probably the best non-single song by the band. Then the album ends with a cover of the Pink Floyd hit "Welcome to the Machine". The original guitar part of the song even has a heavy part put together. There's even a synth that is rarely used by the band, along with mostly clean harmonizing vocals. After the song fades out, a door slam is the final thing heard in the album. Someone leaving the studio already?
Shadows Fall has made a great respected move to a new original modern sound after getting caught in a heated debate of melodeath. This release has clearly established them as part of the new wave of American heavy metal with their thrash metalcore sound. I'm a fan of Shadows Fall among other metal bands, and I believe this album really shows what the band is capable of. Hail to one of the NWOAHM kings!
Favorites: "Thoughts Without Words", "Stepping Outside the Circle", "The Art of Balance", "Mystery of One Spirit", "The Idiot Box", "A Fire in Babylon"
As a fan of modern metalcore/extreme metal bands such as Trivium, Lamb of God, and (of course) Shadows Fall, the albums I think are the most fun to review are the transitional ones, the midway point between 2 different styles, like for example, between melodic death metal and metalcore. Some of those albums beginning that specific transition while still being mostly melodeath include This Darkened Heart by All That Remains and this album, Of One Blood. Speaking of All That Remains, as mentioned in the last review, the previous lead vocalist Phil Labonte left the band in 1998 to form All That Remains. His replacement is Brain Fair, sometimes known as the "male metalcore Rapunzel" because of his extra long dreadlocks.
The production in Of One Blood has improved but it's still sort of in its poor muddy state. Despite that, this is still a great album filled with mostly brutal melodic death metal-ish nostalgia while slowly beginning its transition to strictly metalcore. One of those hints of the band starting to make their move to metalcore is Fair's vocals, which are as intense as death metal growling but harsh enough to appeal to fans of the heavier side of metalcore. The riffing really brings on the genuine melodic hardcore/metal grit while the drumming is still what you would usually in thrash/death metal.
The album begins with the intro "Pain Glass Vision" which is basically a 45-second swaying sound similar to the intro of the At the Gates album Slaughter of the Soul (another inspiration for the band's original melodeath sound). Then it segues to "Crushing Belial", breaking into drilling electric guitars, including a nice lead solo over soft acoustic guitars. The title track is one of my favorite songs of the album. It has a long, complicated solo that would've fit well in a Dragonforce song.
"The First Noble Truth" has a lot you would expect in a melodic metalcore song. 3 songs from Somber Eyes to the Sky were re-recorded for this album. While these songs now have Fair's vocals, it still keeps Labonte vocals in some parts. Those songs (along with their closest genres) are Fleshold (extreme metalcore), Revel in My Loss (melodic death metal) and To Ashes (true thrash metal). "Root Bound Apollo" is another of my favorite songs in the album with a fast searing Metallica-like solo. This was actually originally a song by Fair's former band Overcast, but it ended up in this album. It would later be re-recorded on the Overcast album Reborn to Kill Again.
"Revel in My Loss", a melodeath song with barely any clean singing, now has a 20-second solo at the end that was missing in the original version. The last 3 songs of the album; "Montauk", "To Ashes", and "Serenity" have dual-lead thrash/death metal solos, with "To Ashes" having an acoustic solo before its electric solo. "Serenity" is another one of my favorites and a good way to end the album.
This is some good melodic death metal infused into the metalcore of the band's later endeavors. A must have for metalcore listeners who want a more brutal underground sound. Of One Blood brings back memories of when the metalcore scene was first rising. Once again, a solid melodeath-ish metalcore release in the roots of heavy metal and one of Shadows Fall's finest hours (or at least 46 minutes)!
Favorites: "Of One Blood", "The First Noble Truth", "Root Bound Apollo", "Revel in My Loss", "To Ashes", "Serenity"
Want me to tell you another one of my favorite metal bands? You guessed it... All That Remains! LOL, you thought I was going to say "Shadows Fall". Well I like Shadows Fall, yes, they're another favorite band of mine. But why did I mention All That Remains? Because that band's lead singer Phil Labonte was the lead vocalist of Shadows Fall for their first album Somber Eyes to the Sky. He left in 1998 to form All That Remains. Torn between deciding which band's albums to review first, Shadows Fall and All That Remains, I soon decided to start with Shadows Fall. So yeah, let's begin!
Somber Eyes to the Sky sounds quite different from their future material. This album has more aggressive melodic death metal elements alongside the metalcore sound they would later use. There are some similarities between this and Gothenburg legends Dark Tranquillity and In Flames at the time. Phil Labonte, the vocalist mentioned above, unleashes more aggressive death growls in this album than both the later Shadows Fall albums with Brian Fair and Labonte's work in All That Remains. The bass is sometimes higher than the guitars, and the album has poor production, but the songs really make up for all that.
"Revel in My Loss" opens with a beautiful nature-sound like intro in which the interlude "Lead Me Home" probably should've been put before it as the album intro. After this song's intro, it leads to the song itself, a great melodic death metal song with killer riffs and vocals. Too bad the original version did not have the solo the Of One Blood remake has, but the song is still great. "Pure" is another great melodeath song, probably one of the best in the album. It has a lot of good riffs and leads but sometimes they can barely be heard over the bass, which is a little annoying.
The aforementioned interlude "Lead Me Home" is a nice short acoustic song. This almost reminds me of that Trivium interlude "A View of Burning Empires". I bet Trivium must have been inspired by this interlude to make their own. One of the bigger differences between the two is, "Lead Me Home" has more prominent violin along with lead guitar and they sound pretty cool when played together. Then there's "To Ashes", an incredible song and probably the best on the album. The guitars and vocals both alternate between clean and distorted. For any All That Remains fans wondering, that's rhythm guitarist Matt Bachand doing the clean vocals, not Labonte who doesn't start doing clean vocals until the switch to metalcore for All That Remains. The guitar work on this song is great too.
"Nurture" is...well, 3 words: average filler track. "Fleshold" is an OK song with their later metalcore sound, but the guitar riffs are too simplistic and repetitive. Not really one of the best. "Eternal" and "Suffer the Season" are two more good melodeath songs, though not too special. "Somber Angel" is another incredible song. The first minute is a beautiful acoustic intro, then the rest is pure melodic death metal mayhem. The good closing song "Lifeless" has what might be the best solo on the album.
Shadows Fall fans should check this out if they want to hear what their older stuff sounds like, especially those who like Swedish death metal-like music more than the band's newer thrash-metalcore sound. An amazing album, not the band's greatest, but a good, humble beginning....
Favorites: "Revel in My Loss", "To Ashes", "Eternal", "Suffer the Season", "Somber Angel", "Lifeless"
Demon Hunter have got one of the most legendary metalcore bands out there. Why wouldn't they be? 20 years ago, the band started after the demise of Training for Utopia, and now they're one of the most successful bands signed by Solid State Records. They even have not just a 9th album but also a 10th album, and each of those two new albums have 10 tracks plus a bonus track, totaling 22 released in a single day!! These albums are War and Peace (reviewed in that order for chronology)!
Their previous album Outlive was the softest Demon Hunter album to date. There were still some heavy punches but more hard rock clean singing than in previous albums. War makes up for most of that! It has more heavy and heavier tracks than Outlive while still having hard rock songs with clean vocals. You might it's odd that one album has mostly heavy songs with a few soft ones and the other album has mostly soft songs with a few heavy ones but then you realize that's what Demon Hunter keeps doing in their albums. So while War is the heavier side of the book, it's the more well-rounded side too.
One of the album's greatest highlights is the opener "Cut to Fit" returning to the groove-metalcore from 10 years ago. "On My Side" also keeps up the metalcore aspect with drilling guitars and drum kicks alongside Ryan Clark's rock vocals. A great example of the band's long-lasting musicianship "Close Enough", especially in the verses rather than the chorus. If it wasn't for the growling and clean singing, those verses would sound like old-school metal bands like Metallica and Pantera. That is because of the main riff and guitar tone. The chorus is actually one of my favorites here, bringing it back to the usual Demon Hunter sound with driving guitars, bass, and drums meeting together with Ryan's clean vocals. So excellent!
"Unbound" has a nice dose of metalcore. "Grey Matter" is a cleaner highlight. "The Negative" is excellent, showing more of the vicious growls/screams in ways never usually heard from the band. Same with "Ash", which flashbacks to the thrash metal of early Metallica.
"No Place for You Here" continues the groove-metalcore which reminds me of Lamb of God in the heavy growling verses. "Leave Me Alone" is the longest song of this album and the entire War and Peace duo. Once again the band blends the melodic and heavy elements you've already known from Demon Hunter. "Lesser Gods" completes the War package with everything Demon Hunter fans know and love.
It's great when Demon Hunter comes out of the soft shadows for new heaviness, and that's what they did in War. As a heavier metalhead, I love War much more than Peace. So if you can only choose one of those two albums, I personally recommend buying this one. But either way, there's no wrong direction in this war!
Favorites: "Cut to Fit", "Close Enough", "Grey Matter", "The Negative", "Lesser Gods"
Once again, Demon Hunter has made an impressive 20-year 10-album history. What appeals to listeners is, while some songs have screaming/growling vocals, at least one song in each album focuses completely on clean singing, so that listeners who don't like rough vocals can find a song in each album that doesn't have any roughness. Those listeners would be lucky in albums Extremist, Outlive, and Peace (this one!).
Peace is the other side of Demon Hunter's recent 2-album concept War and Peace, totaling 20 tracks in the entire set (22 in the special versions). Peace is the softer, more melodic side of the duo, and let me just say that I actually like rough vocals in metal. So don't expect me to give a super thumbs-up to this album.
The opener, "More Than Bones" is a nice kick-off, being a well-paced tune that gives you a good rock anthem punch. The lyrics are about God's promise of salvation and the idea of continuing life after death. Then the album ventures into the less memorable "I Don't Believe You". Decent song, but not as varied as the band's past. In "Loneliness", there are times when just when it sounds like there's gonna be screaming vocals or even a breakdown, it doesn't happen! However, it's nice when the song focuses on Ryan Clark's clean vocals. I'm surprised that Peace has its own title track but War doesn't. Either way, the title track shows the band's great typical composition. It flows nicely through a catchy chorus and nice bridge. Easily a highlight!
Demon Hunter has really experimented in new things, like "When the Devil Come" being a well-designed Western-like theme similar to Johnny Cash. It can be hard getting that chorus out of your mind. "Time Only Takes" is personally a timeless melodic Demon Hunter classic. "Two Ways" is closer to hard rock while leaning towards metal.
"Recuse Myself" is a song that would fit well in Ryan's electronic side-project NYVES, as a distinct synth-focused track. "Bet My Life" is probably one of the heaviest songs in the instrumentation of this softer melodic album. The album closes with maybe the best ballad Demon Hunter has done in a long time, "Fear is Not My Guide", sounding a bit familiar in vibe to one of those overrated hit ballads by Queensryche.
If you only have the money to buy one of the two new Demon Hunter albums, which one would you choose? I would personally recommend War, not only because it's heavier but also because it's more musically balanced and memorable. Peace would fit better as part of the War and Peace set rather than on its own. Despite its flaws and lighter sound, Peace still has a few stellar tunes that any Demon Hunter fan can enjoy. Not their best album but certainly a good one to please fans of Demon Hunter and hard rock. As for the heavier fans, I suggest listening to this album after War. Well, that's all the Demon Hunter albums for me to review for now! Peace out....
Favorites: "More Than Bones", "Loneliness", "Peace", "When the Devil Come", "Time Only Takes", "Fear is Not My Guide"
Demon Hunter has been a big part of the Christian metal community for a long time. When they released their 8th album Outlive in 2017, that year also marked the 15th anniversary of their self-titled debut. There's only one original member still in the band and that its founder and creative force, vocalist Ryan Clark. Their previous album Extremist is a great album but it was underwhelming for Demon Hunter fans who fear an electronic change of sound.
With Outlive, that scenario is out the skyscraper window! This album is more in-between, not as heavy as True Defiance and not as diverse as Extremist with a few electronic elements that overpower their usual sound. Outlive is slightly different from other Demon Hunter albums, standing alone with brighter tone.
"Trying Times" starts slower, NOT ballad-slow, just a slow anthem. This track contains marching drums that would nearly make you shout "WE WILL, WE WILL ROCK YOU!!" until the electronic ambiance starts rising and the vocals appear. Then at one minute left, the guitar enters the picture. That intro leads perfectly into "Jesus Wept", a short verse in the bible that Christian kids first learn, but with a different personal twist in the script as Ryan Clark screams "I'M WHY JESUS WEPT!" Lead guitarist Patrick Judge performs a killer solo. Then it flows to catchy rock-ish tune "Cold Winter Sun" (not to confused with epic death metal band Wintersun), which is fine except for the generic chorus and structure. "Died in My Sleep" had some mixed reception as a single. That sounds right because despite the rising appeal, it's still not the best in the album.
"Half as Dead" is a solid jam with tough lyrics. "Cold Blood" returns to the metal feel from earlier, this time with a clean-sung chorus. Halfway through, we switch gears to the alt-metal half-ballad "One Step Behind". Continuing the rock vibe, "Raining Down" sounds like a song you might expect Disciple.
"The End" sounds metal in the verse and breakdown, despite the rest of that song just sounding like straightforward rock. "One Less" levels up the intensity and is one of the only songs to be truly metalcore. The high death screams in the chorus really set the song apart from the melodic majority of this album. "Patience" starts with 30 seconds of piano before beginning the dominating rock-ish sound you were waiting patiently for. What really stands out is bright chorus surrounding the extreme verses. "Slight the Odds" starts with symphonic strings that fade out for the guitars to fade in. An awkward DJ-like transition but as the song goes on, you'll see more of the band's bright side.
The heavier Demon Hunter fans wanting more metal just like in True Defiance would be disappointed. The majority of Outlive leans towards the rock side while still being considered metal. There are heavy moments, soft moments, and in between, lots of melodic moments. While still keeping the key signature in minor (mostly B-minor), the band has experimented with major chords for a happier tone in some songs. Demon Hunter still has their heavier metal side with a couple great aggressive songs, but I think the band still has enough metal to continue having their albums put in this website. After releasing the slightly softer Extremist, Outlive shows the bands experimenting with electronic and older rock elements. Despite all that, this album is still a solid release sounding more different the previous one. Demon Hunter still exists as the same band. The results aren't always lovable, but they are something new. Before we get to the next step of their career, Outlive is a nice album to enjoy in the meantime....
Favorites: "Jesus Wept", "Half as Dead", "Cold Blood", "The End", "One Less", "Patience"
Some bands have the fear of becoming a failure when they first start, but they conquer their fear and enter a long career where they're never capable of failing. Their sound gets worked out and within a few years, released several strongly received albums that motivate them to continue their refined craft. One of those bands is Demon Hunter! Active for 20 years as of this review, they've gained international presence and have a versatile metalcore sound with thrash songs and introspective ballads.
When the band released their seventh album Extremist, Demon Hunter fans knew that this album would some extreme diversity going. And they've been right! Every song has a different identity from one another and are never too similar.
"Death" opens the album with strange foreign chanting over a rumbling dissonant buildup that sounds almost like a metal remix of something from Audiomachine or Two Steps From Hell. After that, the song becomes a slow death-doom-like head-banger with snarled lyrics of vicious hatred ("Just who do you think I am?! I AM DEATH!!") that would traumatize the young and weak into hiding in their blanket for many weeks. The second track "Artificial Light" is the first song Demon Hunter fans would hear from this album when it was the album's lead single. Another heavy song! "What I’m Not" continues the heavy vein of the previous two tracks before greater interest comes in the next track. "The Last One Alive" demonstrates the ability Demon Hunter has to sound rock-ish while still being as heavy as the previous tracks. It's a brilliant composition shows you what the band does the best. There's never any descent into harsh vocal chaos, but the atmosphere massively overpowers anything chaotic. A definite example of brilliant composition and overpowering atmosphere all in a single song!
Demon Hunter's love for ballads continues its display in "I Will Fail You". However, the band's later ballads aren't usually as good as in their earlier albums. Not only that, the bridge is written better than the chorus that are usually what the band focuses more on. And by better, I mean so much better that it might be one of the more notable parts of the album, with that pattern repeating in later albums. Returning to the heavy side, "One Last Song" is an energetic hardcore song with a sing-along chorus. It has similar composition and structure to "The Last One Alive" but with higher thrash emphasis. "Cross to Bear" is much heavier, the heaviest song here, sounding as heavy as some of the heavy songs from the previous two albums with the most full-on savage lyrics you would ever hear from this band. "Hell Don’t Need Me" is slower and sludgier that's interesting but doesn't do anything new.
"In Time" is another somewhat interesting heavy song and the longest in this album's standard edition at just almost exactly 5 minutes. "Beyond Me" really packs some punches into your mouth. It's just filled with screams and cleans over the typical Demon Hunter composition and structure. "Gasoline" is a glorious ballad with a climatic breakdown that perfectly fits. "The Heart of a Graveyard" is probably the second non-ballad song to close an album after "The Wrath of God" from Storm the Gates of Hell, this song being much stronger and ending the album in energetic pace. With a synthesized intro and the vocals being entirely clean, it can almost be considered a pop/rock-ish song. That song deserves some radio play!
In a way, Extremist has Demon Hunter's usual diverse mix of extreme and melody. You can still hear some similarities to their older material and a couple songs lose the plot of the concept and the sound. However, this album shows a definite variety of stylistic choices committed to the band. Pretty much every track from beginning to end has been constructed from multiple influences and styles flowing much smoother than a waterfall down a tall mountain. You would need to listen to every song if you want a complete diverse experience. You want anything from this band? They got it right here....
Favorites: "Death", "The Last One Alive", "Beyond Me", "Gasoline", "Heart of a Graveyard"
The presence of Demon Hunter is strong and comforting in the metal world today. Unlike some bands who emerge and then disappear after a couple years, Demon Hunter stayed alive to make their 6th album, 12 years after their formation. Through their sound-changing years, they're still keeping their general consistency. Normally, bands who keep being consistent would end up becoming stale, but not this band, proven by their sixth release, True Defiance!
You know when a member of a band says that their next album would be their "most aggressive one to date", when it's only true half the time? That sounds about right when vocalist Ryan Clark made that claim because in most of the album, the lyrics are more aggressive than the music. Sure the album is still heavy but not as frantically energetic as their previous album The World is a Thorn. True Defiance makes up for that with its stylistic consistency. It's not as experimental as The World is a Thorn which came out as excellent while having one unfortunate song and one bizarre song that fortunately don't bring down its perfection. True Defiance is less mixed and more straight in the approach of harsh verses and melodic choruses. Giving the guitars more solid strength is Patrick Judge and newest member Jeremiah Scott. There are excellent solos, more than in previous albums, while still having A Plea For Purging-like metalcore riffs and a breakdown. This album is simple, but simply amazing!
Album opener "Crucifix" has all you can hope for in a Demon Hunter song; trembling bass, powerful chords, fast blunt-force drums, and lyrics about the vile world. The fast extreme metal guitar riffs are more prevalent than anything else Demon Hunter could've done. Wonderful! The vocals work best in "God Forsaken", containing furious verse breakdowns while staying clean in the melodic choruses. "My Destiny" also has passionate beautiful choruses surrounding chaotic verses. The band's love for groove metal can be found in the heavy mid-tempo "Wake".
"Tomorrow Never Comes" is an excellent ballad that sounds intense while staying melodic. The Christian tension in both the music and the culture addressed in the lyrics can be found in "Someone to Hate". Another groove track, "This I Know" is a song with elements the earliest listeners might already know from their debut, this time with more impact. The moody acoustic interlude "Means to an End" isn't worth a lot, but still nice.
"We Don't Care" sounds like a Christian battle song of apathy, where Christians don't care if the world around them is condemned by sin. A heavy song with a heavy theme! "Resistance" continues the battle-ready attitude while having the band's traditional song structure. The haunting standard edition closer "Dead Flowers" is a soft ballad that once again offers the lighter side of the band as a sweet ending after all that heaviness. So after that closing ballad in the standard edition, what is left? A couple bonus tracks in the deluxe edition, that's what, starting with the heavy yet dramatic "What is Left". The second and last bonus track, "I Am a Stone" sounds like a smoother closer than "Dead Flowers", this time being just a string-accompanied movement with some of the best written Demon Hunter lyrics. A little boring but still uplifting!
True Defiance has so many things you can expect from a long-running band. It's not as experimental as in previous albums but it's a well-thought tribute to Demon Hunter's thriving metalcore journey. Their formula and sound is fine-tuned to near-perfection. Not as awesome as their previous 3 albums, but a good runner-up!
Favorites: Crucifix, Wake, Tomorrow Never Comes, We Don't Care, Dead Flowers
What better way to start the 2010s decade than with a couple Christian groove metalcore albums? Living Sacrifice's The Infinite Order came first, then Demon Hunter would blow your minds away with The World Is A Thorn! While about 10 years younger than Living Sacrifice, Demon Hunter still remain a Christian metalcore legend. Since their very beginning, they've been making some of the most original and consistent music out there. The band continues to significantly evolve, and anyone during the waiting period 10 years ago would've been wondering what's next.
Their previous album Storm the Gates of Hell is a solid album to enjoy where the band heads off in progressive directions, and it worked! Well, most of the time, with only one flaw in that system. With The World Is A Thorn, Demon Hunter has put most of their progressive experiments aside. And one big thing about this album is, this is the band's first one since the departure of guitarists Ethan Luck and co-founder Don Clark. They were replaced by Patrick Judge and Ryan Helm. Patrick would stay with the band, while Ryan is only here for this album. With those two new members, The World Is A Thorn has great guitar improvement. The band's previous albums had some good guitar work but never really impressive, yet here we are, listening to nice riffing with new occasional technicality.
"Descending Upon Us" begins with an epic guitar intro that would almost fit well in an Unearth album, then the fast heavy metalcore action commences. "Lifewar" continues the fast heaviness but it's too short at just 2 minutes and filled with uninteresting Mudvayne-ish nu metal. Doesn't bring down the perfect score though. After that extreme opening duo, we have "Collapsing" one of the strongest and greatest tracks of the album. That's my usually alt-rock-loving brother's favorite Demon Hunter song which got me into listening to this band. The vocals are mostly clean singing from Ryan Clark and guest member Björn "Speed" Strid of Soilwork, while keeping the song's heaviness along with a delightful guitar solo. "This Is The Line" is another awesome heavy song. That song's chorus is a little cheesy with more clean singing and not as much shouting as the rest of the song that the shouting plagues.
"Driving Nails" is a beautiful song continuing the ballad tradition the band has in every album. Then the thrash metal title track would pummel you and sever you apart with strong lyrics about the secular world. "Tie This Around Your Neck" continues hitting you hard with deep lyrics about the idea of complete dependence of man that is a weight (NOT a noose) tied around our necks.
Another standout is "Just Breathe" leveling up the heaviness especially with the guest vocals by Christian Älvestam, vocalist of formerly Scar Symmetry and now Solution .45 (two of my favorite melodeath bands during my younger melodic side). It sounds like a tough challenge for you to breathe through all this speed and intensity. Those guys really succeed at different speeds! The high guitar screeches in the verse of "Shallow Water" sound obnoxious, but what's enjoyable is, they don't last long so they're still far away from the point of making your ears bleed. Third guest Dave Peters of Throwdown adds some killer growling in "Feel As Though You Could" increasing the aggression in the verses in contrast with the melodic chorus. A perfectly fit structure! The finale "Blood In The Tears" returns to the tradition of wrapping up the album with a soft moving ballad that the band had in their first 3 albums. The band's talent is in broad range there!
The World Is A Thorn is tied with The Triptych as the absolute perfect Demon Hunter album, but it was almost brought down from its 5-star rating by a certain 2-minute track. This is an excellent contender for one of top metal albums to begin the 2010s. God bless this band!
Favorites: Descending Upon Us, Collapsing, This Is The Line, Just Breathe, Feel As Though You Could
5 years since their debut, Demon Hunter had already elevated their hardcore metal status. You might've heard of Demon Hunter a lot in the mainstream side of metal back then. Then after their hit record The Triptych, the band picks up where it ended with Storm the Gates of Hell!
This album has both the band's heaviest moments and their most melodic times. Once again following the 3-edition album tradition, the album has a regular edition, fan edition, and deluxe edition. I already have the deluxe edition but I will review it as if it's the regular edition. This album feels like taking on Christian adversity and not let sins creep in the faith. It's not a concept album but the lyrical content might just form a concept.
This is evident in the opening title track, a brutal thrash-metalcore feast of screams and blasting chorus that would give you a headbanging headache. That song starts the concept with an army of Christian angel warriors storming the gates of Hell to battle Satan's demon knights. Killer beginning! "Lead Us Home" is a bit generic in the first verse, but when you get to the chorus, you notice a big leap for Demon Hunter into atmospheric melody. There's a breakdown with Ryan Clark's Slipknot grumbling/growling vocals which you'll never find again in this album. "Sixteen" sounds much more original, starting with a long experimental chamber cello/guitar one and a half minute intro before vocals come in, including edgy guest vocals by Bruce Fitzhugh of Living Sacrifice in the pre-chorus, in contrast to the clean chorus. The breakdown has interesting lyrics. "Fading Away" is slightly experimental. The vocal styles are swapped with clean verses, a screamed pre-chorus, and a higher clean chorus that's friendly to the radio but not to the hardcore fans. This is probably the most pop-ish non-ballad song in this album, but it's solid and never horrible.
"Carry Me Down" is a stunning ballad that's absolutely gorgeous. It can make a good funeral song for Ryan Clark, with lyrics speaking of faith and heaven. The chorus is so comforting, but the earlier metalcore tension would be regained later on in this album. "A Thread of Light" is a song title that's more appropriate for a ballad, though the song itself is filled with Ryan's angry growls. Even the clean singing in the chorus sounds a little ticked off! The hardcore continues in the heavy "I Am You", a metalcore power-track with lyrics of sword battles to the death and thick heavy guitars. Continuing the battle between Heaven and Hell scenario, where the demon knights manage to defeat the army of angel warriors and rise to heaven. But there's actually a second more powerful wave of angels that push the demons back into the abyss of Hell. "Incision" once again has the vocal swap of clean verses and choruses, and screamed pre-choruses. This extreme surprise really works, especially in the repeated screams of "CUT IT OFF!!"
"Thorns" is a more dramatic ballad with irresistible melody. This is almost a perfect song for the radio, sounding like a pop rock ballad that could've been written by Daughtry. The chorus is worth singing along. One of my favorite melodic tracks here! "Follow the Wolves" has vicious guitars and powerful lyrics with the trade-offs between screaming and singing faster than if you've done it yourself without mixing. Incredible mix of melody and intensity! "Fiction Kingdom" should've been the last song in the regular edition, you'll see why soon. The verses have an angry death metal tone growling about graves, before the poppy chorus. That's interesting! "The Wrath of God" is the one song I don't like as much. It has generic verses and chorus that sounds like a stale rip-off from Summer of Darkness.
This review would be more complete with the two bonus tracks "No Reason to Exist" and "Grand Finale", but I've described enough. With lyrics so intriguing and sometimes haunting, emotional moments of driving mayhem, and the band's well-known intensity, Storm the Gates of Hell and its two surrounding albums, The Triptych and The World is a Thorn, are 3 of the best Demon Hunter albums, and they would make a perfect trilogy if not for "The Wrath of God". A few soft moments make Demon Hunter a bit more distinct, away from heavier metal bands. This is an album that anyone should try, whether they're metal fans or not, for the band's infectious sound. Storm those gates!
Favorites: "Storm the Gates of Hell", "Sixteen", "Carry Me Down", "I Am You", "Thorns", "Follow the Wolves"
It took just 3 years for Solid State metalcore band Demon Hunter to reach the pinnacle of success. Before reaching the very top of fame, the band's second album Summer of Darkness and its singles already had attention fueled up from major magazines and MTV2's Headbanger's Ball. Then there are a couple lineup changes with the new members being guitarist Ethan Luck from ska band The O.C. Supertones and drummer Timothy "Yogi" Watts from rock band The Lonely Hearts.
Earlier fans might've expected a more melodic change in sound, but nope! The band's third album The Triptych is three times better than their earlier albums in different ways including production, brutality, and growling vocals. They have 3 limited edition cover arts to fit the "#3" theme!
"The Flame That Guides Us Home" is the album's 30-second intro that is just Nightwish-esque female opera choir, as the first actual song starts to rise. "Not I" kicks off the heaviness with a fast guitar riff and Ryan Clark's Slipknot-like growling. He starts doing some clean singing in the chorus. At around the 3-minute mark, the riffs become heavier in tone and a brief sample from the album intro is heard before Ryan continues his growls. One of the heaviest songs on the album! "Undying" is another heavy song to remember, starting with smooth drumming and a catchy riff. Ryan's growls don't stand out much, but it's made up by the clean-sung chorus. The song has some of the best lyrics and better flow than the previous track. "Relentless Intolerance" has strong riffs, relentless beats, and growling. Good lyrics and flow, but there's a weak chorus.
"Deteriorate" is the first ballad in this album, beginning with slow acoustic guitar. Then the song picks up with Ryan's amazing clean singing. The lyrics are some of the best in the Christian realm of metal. One of the best songs here! "The Soldier’s Song" is the heaviest track in this album, beginning with fast riffs and drums. There are some clean vocals, but not as much as other songs, creating a nice flow. This is meant to be a tribute to fallen soldiers at wars and it really stands out, though not as much as some other songs. Then it ends with the sound of a war march. "Fire To My Soul" starts steady with a static beat before the crushing guitar riffs come in. It has a similar flow to some of the earlier heavier songs in the album, though having another weak chorus. "One Thousand Apologies" starts with slow and steady drumming with riff aura. It is another ballad that's heavier than "Deteriorate" but not as strong. There's still some growling but just for the 20-second bridge. One of the best songs with amazing lyrics!
"The Science Of Lies" rises slowly with static before being taken over by riffs. Another decently heavy track though it has the weakest lyrics. Ryan Clark still does impressive vocals there. "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" is a neck-snapping cover of a Prong song. This is the only song with no clean vocals, but they really created a catchy riff and tune. Great cover! "Ribcage" is the last track in the album to have any heaviness. It starts with a loud rising blast of guitar riffs. The clean chorus is really impressive, but the growls sound a little off. "The Tide Began To Rise" has beautiful piano and violins, followed by Ryan's clean atmospheric voice that start the song, which is the 3rd and last ballad here. Aside from the weird ambient background break, this is a good song that could use a little more work to fix the flow. Still a great happy ending!
Even though The Triptych is a tad softer than most other Demon Hunter efforts, fans of the band, whether or not they have listen to their first two albums, would enjoy plenty of stuff in this album. Well this wouldn't be completely appropriate for anyone struggling with depression. There's never anything super-negative in this album, and Demon Hunter has once again put themselves some place prominent in the world of metal. The only other album this awesome is The World is a Thorn, and who knows when they would have a more amazing album in the future... Anyway, The Triptych is still totally timeless!
Favorites: "Not I", "Undying", "Deteriorate", "One Thousand Apologies", "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck"
Demon Hunter had been hitting the big time throughout their career. After releasing their debut album, they gained huge success from one of their singles, headline their own tour, and was established as a turning point in Christian metalcore. So after all that fame the band just got, what's next? How about another album to increase the stellar power they had in their debut??
The band got all their hype and praise from their debut, but soon it would be overthrown by their next one, Summer of Darkness. Is this album louder and more passionate than their debut? Let's find out!
The album explodes right in with "Not Ready to Die". Ryan Clark does his screaming/growling in the verses before moving to the melodic chanting chorus. The song has dark lyrics about what life is like before the end and the music has almost every the band has in one song. "If only 33 years can save my life, I have 23 more to make things right..." Was Ryan 10 years old when he wrote those anti-optimistic lyrics?! "The Awakening" continues using growling verses and melodic choruses. "Beheaded" shows the more aggressive side of metalcore with guest melodeath shrieking by Michael Williams of The Agony Scene. Then we reach the peaceful ballad "My Heartstrings Come Undone" which fits perfectly well in contrast with the earlier havoc. However, the lyrical subject is more cryptic.
"Our Faces Fall Apart" continues the vocal aggression with second guest vocalist Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage. However, the chorus has a little more carelessness than depression. Still it would be interesting to see that song have its own music video, but even that wouldn't help level up its interest. "Less Than Nothing" is one of my favorite songs in this album. It begins with electronic-like riffing before ascending into heaviness. Ryan's growls are a little muffled, but he does a great job singing the chorus. That song would be much better if it was longer. The title track starts with a deep haunting voice whispering the opening lyrics before unleashing a powerful guitar riff. I got nothing else to say about that song except for its good chorus. "Beauty Through The Eyes Of A Predator" starts with a brief sound sample until Ryan Clark breaks the quietness with his screaming. MIND-BLOW!! This song's guest vocalist is Brock Lindow from 36 Crazyfists. Another better song!
"Annihilate The Corrupt" begins with a strong riff and scathing drums. Once again, even though Ryan's growls sound a bit muffled, he makes up for that with the cleanly sung, this time sounding a little higher than usual. "I Play Dead" is yet another one of the best songs of the album, almost THE best! It starts with soft riffs and slow beats as Ryan does his most beautiful clean singing with the best lyrics of the album. Then he jumps into growls of angst as if he's screaming in pain. The peaceful chorus is true lyrical work ("I won't, I won't leave without a trace, I won't be erased"). A nice personal deep touch! This is probably one of the best metalcore songs I've ever heard in my opinion. "Everything is White" returns to being as heavy as b*lls, though not as much of a standout as the previous track. Still it has a good drums and impressive riffs, but Ryan Clark does not quite have full vocal potential. "Coffin Builder" is, similar to "Beheaded", a death-ish metalcore track, only more in tuned with the environment of lyrics and vocals with guest vocals by Trevor McNevan of Thousand Foot Krutch. The last track, "The Latest and the Last" closes the album in a good note, having one more well-done chorus.
If you're not into the first Demon Hunter album, this one would be a better starter for you. Summer of Darkness would sound great when you're listening to it at home in your room with the lights out, curtains closed, all in an otherwise bright summer day....
Favorites: "Not Ready to Die", "My Heartstrings Come Undone", "Less Than Nothing", "Beauty Through The Eyes Of A Predator", "I Play Dead"
Ah yes, Demon Hunter... A band that mixed nu metal sounds with metalcore qualities, long before nu metalcore was a thing. Probably a good reason why my alt-rock-loving brother likes some songs from this band which made me interested in the band.
This is an amazing album, NOT the best by the band but still amazing. It demonstrates the earlier nu metalcore mix, and the only other album that has that sound that year is Living Sacrifice's Conceived in Fire. Demon Hunter's self-titled debut is a dark nu-hardcore sapphire gem! Vocalist Ryan Clark provides amazing deep brutal death growls mixed with higher clean singing with many lyrics kept understandable. He also plays guitars, but he and his brother Don would find a real line-up later on.
"Screams Of The Undead" blasts off the album with heavy drums, fast guitar riffs, and Ryan's "screams of the undead". This track is thrashy in the verses, but the higher clean singing is used in the chorus. "I Have Seen Where It Grows" continues the flow from the first track, except the guitar is less thrashy and the chorus is more catchy. "Infected" is a heavy highlight! It begins with an oil-drum solo before beginning the riff aura, followed by Ryan's growls that sound like rapping. Those rap-growls threaten to deduct points from the song, but the chorus keeps the score high with its catchy flow. A definite album favorite!
"My Throat Is An Open Grave" is a softer highlight. A cello and a violin can be heard creating significant waves. The lyrics have most amazing sorrow in Christian rock/metal regardless of the lame emo song title. "Through The Black" is probably the fastest and most aggressive song here, though not as much flow as some of their later material. "Turn Your Back And Run" once again has the same pattern as the previous track, this time also having a catchy chorus. A little more mono-sounding, but still a standout!
"And The Sky Went Red" is a 30-second intro with what sounds like horses escaping their farm set on fire. Then it segues to "As We Wept", another heavy track like the previous couple actual songs, now with quick melodic riff breakdowns. "A Broken Upper Hand" is the least significant song of the bunch with lack of catchy flow and melody, but the drumming and melodic spoken/sung section towards the end is so beautiful. The excellent epic finale, "The Gauntlet" is another melodic ballad in this album. It holds some great strength and, at almost 7 minutes long, still holds the record as the longest Demon Hunter song.
So your metalhead friend just listened to this album. They asked, "How would you describe Demon Hunter?" If you said nu metal, your friend would hate you for not listening to real metal. If you said metalcore, your friend would not recognize anything metalcore in this album and think you're lying. Christian metal? That would surely make your friend's jaw drop to the floor, so go with that one. Solid State is a great label for Christian metalcore bands, and anyone who enjoys those bands should love this one....
Favorites: "Infected", "My Throat Is An Open Grave", "Through The Black", "Turn Your Back And Run", "The Gauntlet"
The 3 trance metal blades continue circling in a helix with the fifth album from electro-metal powerhouse Amaranthe, Helix! Female singer Elize Ryd once again inherits many of the vocal talents dynamically harmonized by male growler Henrik Englund and male singer Nils Molin to keep the helix of Amaranthe's music spinning.
Yep, they have a new male singer, Nils Molin (from heavy metal band Dynazty), replacing Jake E. who left the band the previous year. The band's fifth album Helix can be a rapid treat for any fan or just trance overload. First starting as a melodic metalcore/power metal act, album after album they keep adding more pop energy, sounding like Babymetal if they're 15 years older, two of the vocalists are male, and one of them growls. Either way, get ready for some electro-metal jamming to both love and hate!
Opener "The Score" is a full-steam charger with the band's entire metal arsenal thrown together with pop-fused electronic beats. The vocal triptych of Ryd, Molin, and Englund adds greater excitement than ever. "365" is basically a poppy fusion of EDM (electro-dance-metal), sounding too much like if Ariana Grande made a guest appearance in that Korn album The Path of Totality. Not at all a great track, but still way better than that other "365" song by Zedd and Katy Perry. "Inferno" flips out through industrial groove metal with jackhammer-like drumming and a merely-serving swift-changing platform for the vocal sections. The pounding rhythm throughout "Countdown" is pretty catchy, and even though Elize Ryd sounds too much like Lady Gaga sometimes there, she can still transition her mood at ease.
The title track sounds more related to mid-2000s In Flames. I like that a bit! "Dream" is more dreamy, but the sped-up singing in the verses and Englund's growls sounding more like rapping similar to Mushroomhead makes the song become a little too surreal. "GG6" is the heaviest song on this album, though the heaviness is not used in the way metalheads wanted, ending up with an omnipresent breakdown dragging through metalstep. Not quite a "GG" there. "Breakthrough Starshot" has some of the hardest groove for this album through a techno beat. I actually like it slightly better than most of the songs so far in the album.
More of the original metal commitment from Amaranthe can be heard in "My Haven". Same with "Iconic", a pleasant surprise for heavier metalheads, running wild through hyperspeed melodic thrash and powerful choruses. The 4-minute power ballad "Unified" kinda works, but still not totally great. After all that diversity, "Momentum" is an excellent comeback to the sound of their first couple albums, displaying their heavier passion that has never withered. An excellent song to go out in a metal bang!
Metalheads might think of Amaranthe as a b****rd hybrid of metalcore and electro-dubstep, but Helix is a well-polished album with at least something to admire whether you like it or not. While this ultra-hybrid might be too much to digest, Amaranthe continues to invite millennials into a thrill ride filled with exploding senses of diversity....
Favorites: "The Score", "Helix", "Breakthrough Starshot", "My Haven", "Iconic", "Momentum"
So I guess this album is where the heaviness of Amaranthe starts going downhill a bit, with the trance/pop influences taking up more space in some songs. Of course this is still an enjoyable metal album with heavy songs, but the more poppy direction is starting to take place after being hinted in a few songs from their previous album Massive Addictive. But let's see if they still have what I like...
Metalheads were already p*ssed off with the previous album's "Drop Dead Cynical" that has emphasized the pop in pop metal. For this album, Maximalism, it's about contrasts. This means that one half of the album unleashes a bigger pop experience, while the other half has heavier innovation. So this is still a half-great album!
Things start well with "Maximize", a fantastic synth-rocker with some of the best vocals from Elize Ryd while varying with the other two vocalists. Then in comes the second track "Boomerang", which sounds uncomfortably closer to synthpop, even ripping off Dead Or Alive's "You Spin Me Round" in the chorus. Even "That Song" rips off Queen's "We Will Rock You" by taking their trademarked "stomp-stomp-clap" beat. I'm sorry, but even with that attempted tribute, it's still the lowest point of the album and in the metal world. I'm sure people in the metal community would call it "that song you gotta avoid at all costs". Next one, "21" also sounds unoriginal, just taking elements from the lowest point of Maximum Addictive, "Drop Dead Cynical".
After 3 head-scratching weaknesses, "On the Rocks" is a slightly easier song to follow, though Elize Ryd sounds too entertainingly like Kesha there. Also, LMFAO called, they want their synths back for their party rock anthems! However, Elize and Jake E. do their best vocals in "Limitless", a gorgeous electro-power ballad. It's a perfect duet, though not as perfect as the song that gained my full attention to the band, the self-titled debut's "Amaranthine". Midway-through this album, the blasting "Fury" displays Henrik Englund charging like a raging bull with vocal venom, actually sounding like Blood Stain Child-esque melodeath for the first 40 seconds, until it gets ruined by Elize Ryd trying to impersonate Rihanna. What a joke! "Faster" is another faster song, but a great example of Jake and Elize's harmonies being pushed to the foreground of the mix. One of the better songs that keep the album at its 4-star rating!
"Break Down and Cry" flashbacks to The Nexus with some of the best heaviness of the album. The softer parts would make cry with joy, while the heavier breakdowns are worth good headbanging. "Supersonic" is the most impressive track of the album with supersonic up-tempo synth-metal instrumentation blended with choir vocals that tribute to Queen much better than "That Song". Next one, "Fireball" safely reminds you that there's something from Amaranthe you can never hate. "Endlessly" is a beautiful ending track with Elize Ryd singing solo sounding like Celine Dion or Mandy Moore singing a Disney ballad. Seriously, that has to be in a Disney Princess film soundtrack!
Maximalism can cause quite a dent in the Amaranthe fanbase while still remaining fairly successful and worth the band playing these songs on tour. Regardless of what comes from the studio, when it comes to life in live shows, the haters would be in the back wall. If only the band didn't add too much pop to their metal sound....
Favorites: "Maximise", "Limitless", "Faster", "Break Down and Cry", "Supersonic", "Fireball"
Love them or hate them, Amaranthe is one of the most diverse Swedish metal bands, and not totally in the progressive sense. I'm one of those people who love the band, and I've been listening to them for 3 years as of writing this review. They sure know how to trance-ify melodeath and power metal, and have toured all over Europe and America. Many metal purists accuse them of "ruining metal", but really they just wanna help bring metal and harsh vocals to the masses, no matter the mainstream cost. And even though this album isn't as perfect as their previous two albums, Massive Addictive can be hailed a successful breakthrough in trance metal!
So what's different? Well for one thing, the harsh vocalist is different. Andreas "Andy" Solveström left the band after the release of previous album The Nexus, and taking his place is Henrik Englund. Solveström was great, but Englund does his growls slightly better. Of course, there's still the melodic power metal duo of Jake E. Lundberg and the angelic Elize Ryd. Guitarist Olof Mörck really shines with his guitar solos. The album is both heavier and trance-ier than the previous two, so let's hear if that's true...
The album has an explosive start, literally, with "Dynamite"! After lighting the fuse, it explodes into a very powerful trance-metal song. Elize's vocal performance is energetic and overpowers the other vocalists who still sound great. "Drop Dead Cynical" is a song I'm not really a big fan of. Their attempt to sound heavier ends coming out as more of an industrial-pop single. That marks the beginning of the overpowering trance infecting their later albums. Next song "Trinity" is a strong symbolization of the band and the number 3; a 3-singer band singing their third song in their third album with their band logo being a triangle. Slightly calm but still powerful! My total favorite song here is the title track. Perfect catchiness with electronic synthesizers and an awesome chorus. There's even a metalcore breakdown gone dubstep. It's indeed massive addictive!
The more intellectual "Digital World" deals with society living more via digital devices instead of physically socializing people. This is yet another song fitting well with both the music and the current ongoing pandemic. You can party to that song alone at home! If you're wondering where the ballads are, here's one of them, "True". A truly beautiful clean trance-metal ballad! Elize's moments in "Unreal" sounds so unreal even though it is real. Same with "Over and Done", another clean ballad sung with Jake E. that would take you through the cloudy skies of dreamland.
"Danger Zone" continue Elize's angelic siren-like vocals while also displaying Henrik's vocal ability, perfectly suited to hammer through heavy riff breakdowns in a shattering pulse. "Skyline" is more evocative of the Swedish metalcore you would find in bands like Sonic Syndicate in an upbeat riff rollercoaster. "An Ordinary Abnormality" clearly shows Olof's background history of power metal while highlighting the technical metal precision delivered through melodic and rhythmic arrangements. The last song "Exhale" is so f***ing catchy and beautiful, and I think it might've been inspired by mid-paced Nightwish songs such as this band's possible namesake "Amaranth". A better song to end the album in a pleasant note!
Overall, Massive Addictive is a strong album, though not as perfectly strong as their previous two albums, and Amaranthe continue finding more uniqueness for their sound. They can still have awesome album progress. Seriously, I'm not sure why this band isn't far more successful. It's beyond better than pop stars like Rihanna and Miley Cyrus who have hypnotized middle-school girls to listen to them instead of this glorious band. Even though I'm an extreme metalhead, I wouldn't recommend it to other fans of that kind. As long as people stay open-minded, anyone who is a fan of pop/dance/rock/metal would love this. Those fans would almost never want those 41 minutes refunded!
Favorites: "Dynamite", "Massive Addictive", "Digital World", "Unreal", "An Ordinary Abnormality", "Exhale"
I already said that Amaranthe is a great band that's underrated in the metal community, but that's only for their self-titled album and this one, The Nexus. These two albums keep the diverse style perfectly balanced. As for later albums, the trance overpowers the heaviness causing the metal quality to decrease, and that ratio gets slightly worse per each album, while I still like many of the songs from them. So we gotta enjoy the perfect one-two punch while we still can, with their second album The Nexus!
Like I said before, Amaranthe's 2011 self-titled debut is a clap of well-mixed thunder (though I'm scared of loud thunder, don't laugh). The thunder keeps rolling with album #2, The Nexus, which promised metalheads a greater future for the band, but of course because of those later albums, it ended up being a false promise...
The album begins "Afterlife", another great opener that exemplifies everything you want from the band. Sharp guitars and massive drums are taken to different levels by trance keys. What really stands out is, you guessed it, is the triple-vocal approach. The combination of the female singing of Elize Ryd, the male singing of Jake E. Lundberg, and the screaming of Andreas Solveström are something you would never hear from another band. This cyclone of sound makes you want to turn into Sonic and beat up Dr. Eggman's robots through the wind and light. "Invincible" really displays the band's Nightwish influences while mixing them with the trance metal sounds from other bands like Crossfaith and Blood Stain Child. An interesting example of such a genre! That chorus would make you scream "ONE MORE TIME!!!", which is what Andreas screams between the two parts of each chorus. The title track has crushing music helped out by this vocal team. It really sets apart from any music you hear nowadays. The top-notch lyrics have a positive tone of never giving up. An energetic song of metal heaven on pop earth! "Theory of Everything" has beautiful optimistic energy.
"Stardust" once again has the awesome unique mix of power metal and metalcore. One of Andrea's screamed verses have quite some deep meaning ("My nemesis is my own belief and my actions will change why I'm here!!"). "Burn With Me" is a power ballad with only clean singing that sounds like Evanescence/Flyleaf with the addition of male vocals and a slight industrial feel. Great song, but the vocals sounds a bit like the terrible autotune. "Mechanical Illusion" is an awesome song, despite sounding a little more mechanical. "Razorblade" is another amazing song that mixes catchy and epic, especially in the razor-sharp guitar work.
"Future On Hold" is a futuristic-sounding song with great vocal synergy. It actually fits well with the ongoing pandemic (as of writing this review) that has put the FUTURE ON HOLD. The "Shutdown sequence" narrations sound almost like it was taken from a sci-fi video game. "Electroheart" is an excellent mix of metal growls and electropop vocals with energetic imagination. It fits well as the theme for an invincible cyborg superhero and, don't hate me for saying this, it's Aqua gone metal! "Transhuman" is a trance metal anthem for the evolution of human life. "Infinity" is an inspiring closing song for this band and future generations of trance metal. That's right, "Infinity" shall keep metal alive for a modern future!
The Nexus is a logical progression for the band that has continued the perfect sound from their first album. This proves that the band can be a rising force in modern metal, but sadly, their later albums would have them going a downward direction. Anyway, The Nexus would sure make you think against dissing Amaranthe. Highly recommended!
Favorites: "Afterlife", "The Nexus", "Stardust", "Mechanical Illusion", "Electroheart", "Infinity"
I love Amaranthe a lot, thanks to my alt-rock loving brother who was listening to this band and influenced me to listen to them too. However, their approach has gone wrong for many metalheads. First off, there are 3 singers. And it's not like Mastodon or System of a Down where the vocals are performed by 3 of the instrumentalists, NOPE!! This is a band with 3 instrumentalists and 3 singers! A bit excessive, but still great because of just one style for each vocalist; female singing, male singing, and male screaming. I think also adding a female screamer would've made this band the ultimate vocal team, but never mind that. Screaming vocals can make any band from a different genre sound like extreme metal, and it's done in a good way, at appropriate heavier times. Of course, they also have a female singing vocalist. Ever since what I thought was my complete metal transition from epic to extreme (with Amaranthe being the sole surviving band to make it to my current taste), I've had a bit of trouble finding female-fronted bands that actually fit my current interest. My interest for Nightwish is completely out the window and I don't wanna have to find a generic power-pop-star like Lady Gaga. Fortunately, Elize Ryd is a true modern metal heroine who, together with screaming Andreas Solveström and clean Jake E. Berg form a unique vocal combination in metal!
Another recognize aspect of Amaranthe is the incredible catchiness of each and every song. It's as if they're a metal cover band of pop songs (my favorite kind of metal covers) while sounding like their own original work. Of course, radio-friendly melody is a false thing in metal, right? Well they have that while still having some "true" melody from Amon Amarth and melodic metalcore that some think it's a danger zone to keep away from true metalheads. Yet besides the breakdowns and harmonics, there's one part of the style for metalheads to enjoy and keep their sanity, and that's the power metal bombast. This can save the band from being a false outlaw in metal, right? RIGHT?!
WAY RIGHT!! Opening track "Leave Everything Behind" is one of the first songs by the band and it has melodeath, alt-metal, power metal, and a bit of trance all in a perfect balance. The choruses are catchy while staying epic, especially in the guitar solo during the last one. The sensational vocals of "Hunger" help you picture a singing knight, a screaming barbarian, and a singing sorceress battling forces of evil in a magical futuristic fantasy setting. "1,000,000 Lightyears" indeed takes you a million light-years of metal riffs and spacey trance synths. While the singing is powerful, I actually prefer the screaming there. A true trance-metal gift! "Automatic" bites through trance-metal really well for a song from their debut.
"My Transition" is another song that makes me love this band. It made me remember first listening to this band in 2017 that fit well in my epic metal taste, but also so well in my transition to modern metal that lasted throughout that year, hence this band being the only band from my epic metal era that I still listen to along with the modern bands that I enjoy. "Amaranthine" is one of the most amazing songs from both this album and the band, and at the top of their ballads list in my opinion. In fact, when I went with my friends from the outside world for a karaoke outing, I snuck in that song and sang it with two of my friends. Pretty rebellious, huh? When we sang it, I performed Andreas' screaming bridge. "Rain" (also known as "It's All About Me") has great lyrics for modern metalheads to love. "Call Out My Name" is another nice song, not to be confused with "Calling My Name", a song by Dragonland, another power metal band with guitarist Olof Mörck. Andreas' screams might be a bit too much for melodic listeners, but they wanna call out the names of the other two vocalists. The bridge after the second chorus is the best part. Another perfect mix of dance-pop, metalcore and a bit of prog!
"Enter the Maze" is one of a few songs that were re-recorded from the Leave Everything Behind demo EP, and it's also one of only two songs in the album to surpass the 4-minute mark. The other over 4-minute song is "Director's Cut", which is the longest song ever by Amaranthe, an almost 5-minute progressive-ish epic! Man, they have got to make more songs like that. "Act of Desperation" is another great song I love. The closing "Serendipity" is yet another amazing song, enough said.
I can't describe anything beyond the infectious vocal interplay, mesmerizing melodies, heavenly harmonies. The production is professional with the band doing all to please modern listeners. Before you even think "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO METAL?!?", please just listen to the album of glory all the way. You might find something to appreciate!
Favorites: "Leave Everything Behind", "1,000,000 Lightyears", "My Transition", "Amaranthine", "Call Out My Name", "Director's Cut"
Throughout their astonishing 20-year career, All That Remains has slowly changed their metal style. After the melodeath sound of This Darkened Heart, they switched to metalcore in The Fall of Ideals, and after For We Are Many, they started adding more shaky hard rock/heavy metal elements in A War You Can Not Win. Then Madness took down most of the metalcore, bringing on sterile production, electronic enhancements, and even neo-country rock ballads. If you thought All That Remains were planning on going lower than that, well, boy you were wrong!!
Victim of the New Disease is probably the band's best release in a decade, marking almost a complete return to their heavier metalcore era. Most of the content may not be new territory but it has really brought more attention of the modern metal scene than the overpowering djent movement of other bands. The guitar work from guitar wizard Oli Herbert is probably the most skilled in a long time. Sadly, this would be the last time we would hear his great guitar skills, due to Herbert's passing 3 weeks before.
"F*** Love is the true return to the more brutal side of All That Remains, probably more brutal than anything the band has ever done, but a little too dramatic and restrained. "Everything Wrong" is almost the opposite of the first track, starting with a soft 40-second intro, before diving into mid-tempo heaviness with Labonte's clean singing. There are some more dominating ruthless screams in "Blood I Spill", which sorta reminds me some of Demon Hunter's metalcore albums. "Wasteland" is another heavy track, but the chorus should've been more powerful.
The album's main tuning is drop B, which is similar to the tuning in Behind Silence and Solitude. However, "Alone in the Darkness" is one of only two songs not in that tuning, or at least not in the B minor key. This is a D minor ballad with emotional melodies and atmospheric clean guitar passages. The next track "Misery in Me" is another raging bull that retains a more rational ethos. "Broken" is another furious song with a groundbreaking catchy chorus.
"Just Tell Me Something" is another ballad and the other song in the album to not be in B minor. This D-flat minor ballad is almost a sequel to "What If I Was Nothing?" (from A War You Cannot Win), and it features Asking Alexandria vocalist Danny Worsnop in his own verse and in a dynamic duet with Labonte. An outstanding moment! An aura of dark (but good) vibes appears in "I Meant What It Said" with a song structure switching style from heavy to melodic. That's probably one of the band's most inspired works in a very long time. The title track is as heavy as the first track, while still having clean vocals, and also Oli Herbert's splendid swan song, ending his career in a bang.
Despite the secondary production, the music is quite solid. After reducing the metalcore in the previous 3 albums, they brought it back with what may be their strongest sound in their entire career. What a terrible shame Oli Herbert isn't here to enjoy the success. Oh how proud he would be. But now with former Chelsea Grin/Born of Osiris guitarist Jason Richardson by the band's side, I have a more deathcore/djent feeling about their next album, if they ever make another in the future....
RIP Oli Herbert 1974-2018
Favorites: “Everything’s Wrong”, “Alone In the Darkness”, “Just Tell Me Something”, “I Meant What I Said”, “Victim of the New Disease”
For nearly 20 years, All That Remains has worked real hard to engrave their name into the hearts of metalheads. And it all started right after vocalist Phil Labonte left metal titans Shadows Fall and rose like a phoenix to make his own band. After their 2002 melodeath debut album, their next 6 albums show them slowly moving out of melodeath to a metalcore sound that is original but sounds like a hybrid of Hatebreed and The Devil Wears Prada, and throwing in some hard rock/heavy metal elements that end up making them sound like a mix of Story of the Year and Five Finger Death Punch. The hard rock/heavy metal elements are perhaps the most prominent in this album. You know what it is? This is Madness! With an unstoppable crazy train of beautiful heaviness faster than Leonidas can say "THIS IS SPARTA!!!"
The band's 2017 album Madness has production done by Grammy-winning producer Howard Benson, known for his huge heavy production range from Brazilian metal legends Sepultura to the first American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson. That might be a good explanation for this album's influences ranging back and forth from extreme metal to pop rock. The band consisting of Phil Labonte (vocals), Oli Herbert and Mike Martin (both guitars), Aaron Patrick (new guy on the bass), and Jason Costa (drums) have produced an eclectic offering of songs with reflective music and lyrics that they like to write and are prepared for the incoming criticism it might cause.
Madness begins with one of its heaviest tracks, "Safe House", filled with punishing bass and thrashing drums and a taunting chorus. Atmospheric keyboards make this song sound like something Rob Zombie would use for a horror flick, and there is a drilling dueling guitar solo before a slower sludgy final chorus. The title track is a heavy groove song that was a good choice for a single. The political lyrics are somewhat repetitive, but the rest of the song is pure heavy metal madness!! The immense sonic sound of "Nothing I Can Do" a thrashy metalcore song that stands out with pulsating bass and drums, along with layered vocal harmonies in an infectious chorus.
Then things seem to curve around with "If I'm Honest" with a more of alternative/country/Christian rock sound that has Creed ballad vibes. Not bad, but unexpected. This soft ballad is a nice break from the band's more extreme nature. We now return to the heavy sound of pulverizing bass and infectious drumming with "Halo", an atmospheric addictive anthem for those who want to live their own life and not be told what next move to make. Things get louder with the next song "Louder", an overpowering track that motivates you to not let anything overpower who you are.
The emotional, more tender "River City" starts off acoustic before kicking in with layering harmonies and pulsating rhythms. "Open Grave" has some hard-hitting growls and catchy melodies. Back to the tender side again, "Far From Home" is another catchy alternative/country/Christian rock ballad, a better song for the faint of heart. "Trust and Believe" has some more heavy bass-lines and growling vocals. During the intro and part of the first verse, I thought it was their first album Behind Silence and Solitude because of the melodeath riffs, growling vocals, and (drop?) B tuning, but then I thought, "No, this is Madness, not Silence and Solitude! Gotta remember that." Then there's the bizarre acoustic ballad "Back to You" filled with strings and bells. "Never Sorry" is another one of the album's heaviest tracks, mixing synth and growls. And finally, a cover of "The Thunder Rolls" by country singer Garth Brooks, with soaring guitar work and Labonte singing some beautiful ethereal vocals together with Diamante Azzura.
Madness is a good album, but not very awesome due to the album being the farthest from their original metalcore roots. It has some more thrashy elements that go well with the band's heavier side, including crushing bass and pulsating drums, yet throwing in some infectious catchy choruses and atmospheric melodies that make the band sound like radio-friendly Skillet-like Christian hard rock. While not at all the band's best album, it sure has some of their greater moments!
Favorites: "Safe House", "Madness", "Nothing I Can Do", "Halo", "Louder", "River City", "Trust and Believe", "Never Sorry", "The Thunder Rolls"
I've already mentioned in my last review that A War You Cannot Win is a good album, despite many people thinking it's just terrible emo trash. Well this album, The Order of Things is another one from the band that I still enjoy but some people really hate it. The album shows the band once again moving more toward hard rock/heavy metal while still having some metalcore songs. It's not as awesome as the previous few albums, but there's still some great stuff!
The band, consisting of vocalist Philip Labonte, guitarists Oli Herbert and Mike Martin, bassist/backing vocalist Jeanne Sagan, and drummer Jason Costa, continue standing strong with their seventh album, released in 2015. Josh Wilbur has helped the band with the album production and some lyrical contributions.
The album starts well with "This Probably Won't End Well", beginning with a piano intro (Who performed that... Labonte?), then the heavy guitars kick in at ease. Things grow heavier with "No Knock", an impressive deathcore-styled song with nailing epic hooks. I have to admit, that song shows the band doing a far better job than their old melodeath material. "Divide" is more of a Skillet-like hard rock/heavy metal song with a catchy melody. That's probably one of the first songs where Sagan's backing vocals are prominent, singing together with Labonte in the chorus. "The Greatest Generation" is a great catchy metal song with pounding rhythms, heavy riffs, fast melodies, an easy to sing along chorus. "For You" is a ballad starting with acoustic melody, leading into a slow verse, a deep bridge, and beautiful with Labonte and Sagan singing through heartbreak and heaviness.
In "A Reason for Me to Fight", the thunder rolls (you'll understand that reference in their next album) with double kicking drums and shredding guitars. "Victory Lap" is another heavy rock/alt-metal anthem with easier instrumentation. It's actually the song that got me into this band, thanks to my brother who also likes this band (he likes metalcore as well but when it's closer to his usual hard rock/alt-metal taste). "Pernicious" has some powerful melodic energy with shredding guitars and vocals alternating between Labonte's shouting and singing and Sagan's vocals. "Bite My Tongue" has clearer guitars than drums with a clearer electric guitar jam.
"Fiat Empire" has big slower verses and thoughtful louder choruses. "Tru-Kvlt-Metal" makes you want to face palm over the oddly spelled title. The track itself is cool with all this metal aggression, but the momentum is a little lost and out of place. This song would work better in their earlier albums, not this one. But this is still a great song with their brutal metalcore sound and is one of the album's heaviest songs. At 7 minutes, "Criticism and Self-Realization" is the longest song on the album and probably the longest song ever by the band. This seems more like a two-part suite. The first part is fast and heavy, but at around the 5-minute mark, the song fades out into a mellow piano outro, bringing the album to a calm end.
Besides a few minor flaws and the album not having as much metalcore as their previous albums, The Order of Things is still pretty solid. A good surprising nature that will probably surprise you too. Not everyone might like this album, but to some people like me, it's a rather nice album to enjoy!
Favorites: "The Greatest Generation", "Victory Lap", "Tru-Kvlt-Metal"
After 5 albums in which the first half of the total amount is melodeath and the second half if metalcore/heavy metal, it became time for All That Remains to move to a more mainstream sound. I still somewhat enjoy this album because not all the heaviness is lost, but a lot of you metalheads are probably gonna say "What the hedge, man?!?! That album is just mainstream garbage!!! Is it the first album you owned, newbie?!" Well I've listened to metal for many years, and I don't see anything horribly wrong with this album, so sludge it haters!! Go find something worth disrespecting!
Sorry about that, but I can see that so many metalheads aren't so into this album. I'm sure my review itself has a little more percentage than all 5 Metal Archives reviews for this album combined (total: 82%). But this album gives All That Remains a polarizing increase in success. Critics would criticize this album even more harshly, but this new style would be embraced by legions of new fans. With a mix of metalcore, mainstream heavy metal and hard rock, A War You Cannot Win is the band’s most melodic effort.
The album has a great heavy start with thrash-driving metalcore openers "Down Thru the Ages" and "You Can't Fill My Shadow", before smoothly shifting to the arena rock inspired anthem "Stand Up". "A Call to All Non-Believers" has darker riffs but lack of the usual shredding solos.
"Asking Too Much" is a very melodic and memorable radio hit. There's a 20-second "Intro" that is just a small acoustic melody. Seems pointless, but it perfectly leads into the furious "Just Moments in Time". The ballad "What If I Was Nothing?" has a similar vibe to Five Finger Death Punch ballads.
There's some nice drumming on "Sing for Liberty", but the track doesn't totally stand out, but things turn back around smoothly with the melodic "Not Fading". However, some momentum is lost when the acoustic instrumental "Calculating Loneliness" comes in. That might work as a good outro, except there's only more song left, the title track. Here the tempo really cranks up and there's even a breakdown. A killer way to close the album.
A War You Cannot Win is another album with polished production, containing catchy mainstream singles along packed with aggression and heaviness to satisfy metalheads. This is a successful album, and while not as great as the last few albums, is really not an album worth hating. But I guess some good things aren't always appreciated....
Favorites: "Down Through the Ages", "Stand Up", "Asking Too Much", "Just Moments in Time", "Not Fading", "A War You Cannot Win"
All That Remains albums #3, #4, and #5 are what I consider the "perfect transition trilogy". The first 2 albums are just melodeath, while the sixth album and beyond are mostly hard rock coated metalcore. And the 3 albums in the middle are what make a perfect transition from their original sound to what they've become later: The Fall of Ideals (metalcore with some melodeath elements), Overcome (metalcore with a melodic heavy metal twist), and For We Are Many (metalcore with a little more melodic heavy metal/hard rock). Yes, this is the last part of the perfect transition trilogy, For We Are Many, my second favorite All That Remains album (still behind Overcome)!
For We Are Many contains most of what Overcome has, including harsh vocals in verses, clean singing in choruses, tight hitting rhythms in drums and bass, graveling guitar leads and solos, and catchy infectious melodies. But there are some twists and turns in this album. Some songs return to the heavier side of All That Remains, while others still use the mainstream songwriting formula that infected Overcome, and these heavier songs have more in store for merciless (or in my case, merciful) metalheads like me. There are mostly fast songs with jolting rhythms and rapid riffs, and the aggression is dialed up to please some fans of the heavier All That Remains material.
The album opens with "Now Let Them Tremble", an intro that foreshadows the heaviness with sawing guitars and a hammering beat, while Phil Labonte howls the name of the intro. Then the title track comes in with nostalgic Gothenburg chords and deep guttural vocals, bringing back memories from their melodeath past. "The Last Time" is probably the best song of the album and my second favorite by the band, behind "Two Weeks" from Overcome. It really brings their metal sound despite mostly clean vocals and the repetitive chorus. "Some of the People, All of the Time" is basically the evil twin of the "Time" duo, with staccato rhythms, pulsating riffs, one of the many screaming guitar solos of the album, and a big death metal-like breakdown with abyssal gutturals, bringing the song to a brutal end.
The band won't go quietly on this song, "Won't Go Quietly" (convenient name, right?) Guitarist Oli Herbert unleashes a decent solo in the middle that is not at all quiet, but the strange outro is a little out of place, but does not affect the rest of the album. Shining better in aggression is another aptly named track "Aggressive Opposition", with the vocals becoming more like battle cries with work well despite the lyrics being out of character. The song is a little more vocal-focused, as other band members like bassist Jeanne Sagan have more increasing reliance than effort.
"From the Outside" sounds more like a metalcore song that could fit well in The Fall of Ideals. "Dead Wrong" makes another backward turn through history with some melodeath: Fast pummeling drumming, sawing guitar leads, deep resonant bass, and evil sounding death growls. Dissonant yet pleasing! At least there's some clean signing to fit well with the howling and growling. "Faithless" is another particularly outstanding song with some killer shredding. Thundering drumming and merciless pounding rolls in on "Hold On" that once again balances heaviness with melody. "Keepers of Fellow Man" has stronger potential, despite a wordy refrain. The closing track "The Waiting One" is quite a change of pace for both this album and the band. It is probably their first almost entirely clean-sung power ballad with occasional acoustic guitars and Labonte's clean vocals, but there's still some intensity during the solo.
In a nutshell, both fans of Overcome and fans of the first 3 All That Remains fans will both find what they like in a more equal balance, and the album delivers a satisfying brutal force of aggression. The album is basically a metalcore/heavy metal album with occasional melodeath throwbacks that continue displaying the All That Remains trademark of catchy choruses and hammering verses. Awesome, but for me, not as awesome as Overcome! But beware, the hard rock apocalypse will come next album....
Favorites: "For We Are Many", "The Last Time", "Some of the People, All of the Time", "Aggressive Opposition", "Faithless", "Keepers of Fellow Man", "The Waiting One"
I know I said that I love The Fall of Ideals as much as other metalheads in my last review, but that isn't my absolute favorite All That Remains album. It's this one, Overcome! That's my #1! For me, The Fall of Ideals is #3 and For We Are Many is #2. I know a lot of All That Remains fans don't like this album as much as The Fall of Ideals, but you remember my older brother that I mentioned in my first forum thread? Yeah, he also listens to metalcore that is close to his alt-rock/metal taste, so he's more into the more recent All That Remains material, and that's how I became interested in that band. Both Overcome and For We Are Many are my favorites because they sit right between the band's earlier metalcore albums and their recent alt-metal/metalcore albums. So there!
This is the band's fourth album, and here they start to showcase a more mature and commercially better sound. While the band has moved almost completely away from their old melodeath sound, they still keep the metalcore but with a melodic heavy metal twist. The band moved away from producer Adam Dutkiewicz (from Killswitch Engage) and hired Jason Suecof (who produced albums by bands like Trivium, God Forbid, and August Burns Red) to produce this album, and I believe it was Suecof who convinced the band to go for this at the time never before heard sound. Also, this is the band's first album in D-flat tuning.
The album opens with "Before the Damned", a perfect blend of metalcore and melodic heavy metal. Their transition from intense to melodic has been made so easy. Guitarist Oli Herbert unleashes some killer riffs and new dude on the drums Jason Costa begins showcasing his drumming skills that make the band remind the band why he is the right guy for this job. Vocalist Phil Labonte would keep his range for the rest of the album. "Two Weeks" is one of the band's first songs to discard most of their metalcore sound, but I still love it anyway! This is the band's best track on the album, probably the band's best one in general. Dueling guitars, deep bass, relentless drumming, this song has it all. Next up is "Undone" where Labonte continues his deep screams and guttural grunts while still singing cleanly. Guitarists Oli Herbert and Mike Martin have a guitar face-off in the background (Iron Maiden would be proud). Then Herbert let rips a shining solo along with Costa having his double bass drum kicks.
"Forever in Your Hands" may be too mainstream for some heavier metalcore fans but it has a sweet solo toward the end. In "Chiron", the song starts off with a classic intro, then Labonte delivers some of his hardest vocals to date transiting back and forth from death metal gutturals/screams to melodic metal clean vocals at ease. Bassist Jeanne Sagan sets a heavy undertone here. "Days Without" continues the balance between heaviness and melody. "A Song for the Hopeless" is a unique song, opening with acoustic guitar and clean singing, then suddenly, aggressive bass and screaming. Then it keeps switching back and forth.
"Do Not Obey" is another song that gives the band some pride. Labonte continues using his trademark vocals, together with a harmonic catchy chorus that is worth a sing along. Returning to the band's signature sound of their previous album, "Relinquish" is heavier with sick solos and lack of clean vocals. The title track is another heavy and technical song but also melodic and catchy. Then the album ends with a song that should've worked as a radio single, a cover of "Believe in Nothing" by Nevermore, another awesome band, in which the two bands would later, recently have another thing in common, one of the members sadly leaving this world (RIP All That Remains guitarist Oli Herbert 1973-2018 and Nevermore vocalist Warrel Dane 1961-2017, two fallen heroes). Anyway, Labonte shows a lot of depth and range in his clean singing in this song.
All That Remains has proved that they can make music that is more melodic while still keeping the heaviness. There's some progress and maturity right there! The band has made some catchy riffs and irresistible hooks while still keeping their trademark metalcore sound. Seriously, I suggest that some of you All That Remains fans just cut the criticism and enjoy and appreciate the perfection of this album, an album with the band's ability to go where no metalcore band has gone before!
Favorites (all of them, but for real...): "Before the Damned", "Too Weeks", "Chiron", "Do Not Obey", "Relinquish"
After the first 2 albums have a melodeath sound with small evolving elements of metalcore, All That Remains decided to go fully metalcore with their third album The Fall of Ideals, released in 2006. This is honestly a little similar to Shadows Fall's move to thrash metalcore on their third album The Art of Balance, except All That Remains never really played thrash. The new sound of metalcore is highly enjoyable and fits very well with the band, and that caused the band to reach a higher peak of fame and begin departing from their old melodeath sound. This is the kind of style All That Remains fans really want!
I said this before but I'm currently a huge fan of metalcore. I mean, sure they sound generic, unoriginal, and too much like one another. But some bands, like All That Remains, really mix up the genre with elements from other well-fitting metal genres, like in this album where it's mostly metalcore with some melodeath twists. That's also what other metalcore bands like God Forbid and Bleeding Through are doing, which is why I like them as well. Some people might think this is another bland generic metalcore album, but hey, that's their own opinion. I, among other people, love this album and consider it a metal gem. A metal onyx!
Let's start this album with a scream, literally! "This Calling" starts with a high menacing metalcore but close to black metal scream from Phil Labonte over chugging metalcore riffs. After a killer verse, the catchy chorus comes in, then another scream to continue the same path. After the second chorus, the duel guitars keep playing a melodic riff until a breakdown with Labonte's screaming. And finally, a pretty short guitar solo and the final chorus before the closing outro. "Not Alone" starts off with melodeath/metalcore riffs along with Labonte's screaming verse, then another catchy chorus with clean singing. Then it repeats the same formula in a structure similar to the previous track. After the second chorus, both guitarists play an impressive In Flames inspired solo. After some more chugging riffs and drums, the chorus plays one more time along with more duel guitars. "It Dwells in Me", again begins with melodic riffs and simple drum riffs together with Labonte's screams, followed by yet another catchy chorus. Guitars play some melodeath riffs, then another well-played but not too complex solo. After that, there's a metalcore breakdown with Labonte screaming. Then finally, the final chorus plays and the song ends with some more death growls and metalcore vocals.
"We Stand" starts off with melodeath riffs, then a verse with some more of Labonte's screaming/shouting vocals. Then another catchy chorus comes in. There's a bit of spoken word here that's slightly better. After the second chorus, there's a melodeath breakdown, followed by the most technical solo so far. Then after another breakdown and another chorus, the song ends. "Whispers (I Hear You)" is a slightly different track with an acoustic intro before blasting into a metalcore/melodeath verse. Then there's probably my favorite chorus in the album with amazing clean vocals. The second chorus leads into a breakdown and a solo, before the song's last repeat. "The Weak Willed" is totally different because it is almost a pure melodeath over 4-minute song that flashbacks to the band's first album Behind Silence and Solitude. Starting off with death metal style riffs and drumming, Phil Labonte delivers some menacing death growls and high screams. The chorus has just metalcore screams/shouts. Some melodic riffs appear than it's back to the death metal riffs and drumming. Then the song ends with Labonte's clean vocals and a slow soft outro.
"Six" should've been the sixth track of the album because of its name, but that doesn't matter too much. It's another death metal influenced song starting off with lightning fast melodeath riffs and blast beats. Then the repetitive metalcore formula returns with breakdowns and clean and shouting vocals. Then in the middle, the song slows down with melodic riffs, a simple drum beat, and a short solo, before the song repeats one more time. The next track "Becoming the Catalyst" starts with a death growl, fast melodeath riffs, and a simple drum beat. Still the same path as the first few songs (fast riffs and drumming, catchy chorus and solos, etc.). "The Air That I Breathe" is a very recognizable track that once again breaks the formula with a lot of different things, including the key signature being B minor instead of D and/or G, and a swift solo in the intro. Other than that, the riffs are still slightly the same but the lead melodies are more harmonic. The furious last two tracks, "Empty Inside" and "Indictment" has some drumming switch from ultra-fast to slower and vice versa with some change in tempo, plus some (quoted from the lyrics of "Empty Inside") "six-string slaughter!!"
All in all, this is a great album, one of the best albums by All That Remains! Call it generic if you want, but this is almost a perfect metalcore album. It's probably one of the best, most groundbreaking albums in metalcore. But in the entire heavy metal world? Not so much, but it's very enjoyable to any metal fan, especially fans of metalcore and/or melodic death metal. You will certainly enjoy it!
Favorites: "This Calling", "Not Alone", "We Stand", "The Weak Willed", "Six", "The Air That I Breathe"
In early 2000, All That Remains recorded their melodeath first album, Behind Silence and Solitude (not released until 2002). Then over 3 years later, in late 2003, the band began recording another album, and while it's still mostly melodeath, some parts foreshadow the metalcore sound that would dominate some of their later albums, including D tuning, clear production, breakdowns, and clean vocals. This Darkened Heart, released in 2004, is basically an album with melodeath and metalcore mixed together!
This album has both similarities and differences compared to the band's first album. The tone has been change to be a little brighter, with the guitars tuned up to D tuning. Behind Silence and Solitude was played in B tuning, which again I'm not sure about because of the DROP B tuning in their recent heavy/metalcore albums. There's even some improvement to the production, handled by Adam Dutkiewicz from Killswitch Engage, making this album sound much less murky. There are also metalcore breakdowns in most songs that fit well, along with vocalist Phil Labonte using lower growls, medium-range screams, and higher shrieks, and for the first time, clean vocals.
The opening track "And Death in My Arms" begins with an acoustic intro before the awesome extreme action kicks in. "The Deepest Gray" has a double-edge sword in vocals with one edge being the rough grunts and screams and the other edge being the melodic clean vocals. Labonte's clean vocals come in during the chorus at the same time as low grunts and high screams.
"Vicious Betrayal" has a more speed-oriented flow with outstanding guitar riffs. Labonte's higher screaming halfway through really mixes things up a bit, along with a better guitar solo that the last track. "I Die in Degrees" is heavier with mostly heavy guitar riffs, then there's a slower, more melodic section with emotional solos. A nice balance of heavy and melodic. "Focus Shall Not Fail" is the progressive 6-minute epic of the album. The song starts with a slow intro then builds up speed with some growling and screaming verses along with nicely done clean vocals in the chorus. Yeah, clean vocals!! Then it segues to "Regret Not", which despite being an instrumental, is actually one of the album's better songs, starting and ending acoustically, with a raging guitar section in between.
This kind of riff structure continues in "Passion", not the best but still good. It has a little more of Labonte's clean vocals and a steady solo. "For Salvation" sounds dark, with Labonte continuing his harsh vocals in the speedy verses while delivering some more outstanding clean singing in the chorus. "Tattered On My Sleeve" has a groove/death metal intro, but Labonte's screaming makes the sound stay stable. Interestingly, the guitar really matches the vocals. Then there's an acoustic twist halfway through. A little unexpected and confusing, but the good short guitar solo really makes up for it. Then some more emotional clean singing and melodic instrumental work. The title track has some sharp slow groove elements with powerful palm-muted guitars and bass along with hellbent harsh vocals throughout. It really sounds good and not at all repetitive, despite its short length. A fitting way to close the album!
Overall, This Darkness Heart is musically a midway point between the melodeath Behind Silence and Solitude and the metalcore Fall of Ideals, and it keeps the best qualities the former while introducing the greatness of the latter. This is probably the band's best album to not reach 5 full stars. Both melodeath listeners and fans of metalcore and the band since Overcome may want to check it out. But after This Darkened Heart, the band's darkened side would almost never see the light of day again....
Favorites: And Death In My Arms, I Die In Degrees, Focus Shall Not Fail, For Salvation, Tattered On My Sleeve
All right, I got the Shadows Fall reviews out of the way. So now let's go to their spin-off band, All That Remains! LOL, "spin-off"... I know that's an odd thing to call an associated act, but I don't know what else to call it. I'm sure some of you already know which one of the founding members was originally in Shadows Fall. That's right, the vocalist Phil Labonte! Now that he's out of Shadows Fall, he has more freedom to focus full-time on his own band, All That Remains, another band in my favorites list.
The album is more of a melodeath album with barely any metalcore. You can still recognize the band's signature sound within the simple yet delicate riffing. The production is a bit low, though it gives the album some hollow ambience. I guess that's what you would expect in a debut album recorded in 2000. But the release year? Not 2000. Not 2001! But 2002!! Somehow it took two years to release the album after recording. No idea why, but probably label issues. The album is not really charting or single-spawning but it should please the underground fans. While some songs are longer than in their later albums, the album is a little shorter than those album (under 40 minutes).
The album opens in a great start with two of my favorite tracks on the album, the title track and "From These Wounds". "Follow" is another good one, but Labonte's death growls sound breathy similar to his growls in his album with Shadows Fall, Somber Eyes to the Sky. The guitar solo at the end of the song by the late guitar wizard Oli Herbert, while not the speedy shredding used on later albums, sounds more classical and inspired by Gothenburg legends At the Gates album Slaughter of the Soul.
The tracks that really stand out are "Clarity" and "Erase". They're more experimental (NOT in an avant-garde prog way) that much of the band's later material and best represent the band's powerful musical prowess. However, the songs are lyrically sort of bland and vague, but Labonte's guttural harsh vocals help make them worth the money spent of this album. This should've been what made the band end up in big fame, but their rise to fame isn't until a couple albums later, which is fine with me.
The last 3 songs, "Shading", "Home to Me", and "One Belief" are mostly pure melodeath greatness, especially the last one. All of which fit well in the crushing low tuning of B tuning. Wait, is it really B tuning?? I think it sounds more like DROP B tuning, because that's what they used in their latest heavy metal/metalcore albums Madness and Victim of the New Disease. I don't know, but if you guys know, please put your source in the comments below.
The album is not as accessible as their later works, but it is still a rewarding album to get your hands on, release intense emotion and energy. If you feel like getting a solid melodeath album, this one will never disappoint you. Another melodeath beginning for a metalcore band....
Favorites: Behind Silence and Solitude, From These Wounds, Clarity, Erase, Home to Me, One Belief
It's been almost 7 years as of this review since God Forbid split up, and most of their albums still live on as pieces of metalcore history, especially IV: Constitution of Treason, which is absolutely brilliant metal right there that none of their other albums can surpass. And the album after that, Earthsblood display the band's highest progressive point of talent. Seriously, nothing else by God Forbid can be as awesome as those two albums...except for one final album, Equilibrium (not to be confused with the German epic folk metal band). This is another God Forbid album you'll never regret!
Equilibrium is an album that you can find and pick up on the web or buy at your local music store, and when you start playing it, you realize that's an emerald gem from a band you've been missing out all this time. The album can kick your a**, f***ing snap your neck with its headbanging riffs, and wrench your gut with extreme and emotional vocals. How the f***ing h*ell can Byron Davis' vocals be any better and more suitable?! Both God Forbid and fellow NWOAHM band Shadows Fall have a couple things in common; an irreplaceable lead vocalist, and they shared one of their last tours before splitting up or going on hiatus. The guitars have beautiful solos that range from heavy and strong to soft and intricate. The drumming never goes over the top while never going quiet, and you would keep finger-tapping to the beat song after song.
Starting in a positive note, "Don’t Tell Me What to Dream" kicks off with a Meshuggah-like riff as Byron Davis shouts that command, "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DREAM!!!" The song's defiant breakdown rhythms are unbreakable with the help of drummer Corey Pierce and bassist John "Beeker" Outcalt. Byron Davis does some new experiments with his voice in "My Rebirth" such as the King Diamond-like high shriek in the first verse. Guitarists Doc Coyle and, replacing his brother Dallas, Matt Wicklund crank up the catchy riffs, crispy breakdowns, and soaring leads, all tuned below the standard E (drop C tuning). The title of "A Few Good Men" reminds you of that movie where Jack Nicholson yells "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!" The song itself is a good thrasher. "Scraping the Walls" is probably the closest you would get to a God Forbid power ballad in the verses. The chorus is an epic layered blast that slams you to a brick wall, screaming for live crowd participation.
The insane lyrical attitude continues in "Conquer", sounding like Byron Davis is screaming for his life as he's being dragged into the asylum of hell. The title track begins with beautiful clean guitar/synth before continuing the heaviness with heavenly guitar and drums. It almost reminds of the melodic Darkest Hour at the time! The insane attitude comes in again in "Overcome". That song, along with the haunting "Cornered", spread synths through a bit of the song, especially the pre-chorus.
The vocals in the beginning of "This is Who I Am" sounds a little forced by the clean guitar arpeggio. The rest of his clean vocal performance is fantastic, dominating his shouting vocals more than ever while still intertwining with them. The main riffs of "Move On" return to the band's classic thrashy metalcore. "Pages" shows the epic heavy climax of some of the last pages of one of the last chapters of the last volume of the God Forbid discography. Then the second-to-last chapter, "Awakening" is a throwaway instrumental that's barely part of the story. The djent riffs there are pretty decent, followed by a cool shredding lead, all reminiscent of The Contortionist, but then it ends abruptly, causing that track to be an unnecessary detraction from the overall theme. Then the final volume really ends with the final chapter, "Where We Come From". The band's classic thrash-metalcore riffing shows how much they miss Dallas Coyle's time in the band and honor his songwriting influences. That kinda ignores Wicklund's contributed creativity, but still, there's no better way to say farewell than to avenge a departed member.
Equilibrium has the most amount of songs in a God Forbid album, 13! They're probably like, "Scr*w superstition", am I right? And none of them disappoint! God Forbid really went out in a bang with one of the best farewell albums I've heard in a long time. Well done, God Forbid!! Thank you for this music, your last chance to create....
Favorites: "Don’t Tell Me What to Dream", "Scraping the Walls", "Equilibrium", "This is Who I Am", "Pages", "Where We Come From"
While this is the second-to-last God Forbid album, this is their last one with one of the Coyle brothers, rhythm guitarist/clean vocalist Dallas Coyle, but he and his bandmates still outdid themselves in one more album before he left. Throughout the band's activity, they've been a metalcore band that started too musically tight but later evolved into excellent heavy metal on their previous album IV: Constitution Of Treason. That's a terrific concept album, but this album Earthsblood is more unique though not too perfect. The familiar elements of metalcore, melodeath, thrash, and progressive metal are combined into another modern masterpiece!
So how exactly would this hybrid be described? It's definitely modern metal with hardcore influences, downtuned guitars (to drop A, rather than D and drop C tunings from other albums), and vocal interplay between harsh shouts and melodic cleans. Earthsblood shows that while God Forbid are not as famous and peers like Shadows Fall, they're more ambitious. The band's mission to blend all of their influences in their cauldron might've proven to be a recipe for disaster, it's still an accomplished miracle.
The first couple minutes of this album makes you think this is a Dimmu Borgir, starting with the orchestral intro "The Discovery". Then "The Rain" sounds briefly like strong dark early Dimmu Borgir-like black metal, but it's when the downtuned riffs and Byron Davis' introspective vocals come in when you realize this is God Forbid, not Dimmu Borgir. The mid-song break is a little startling but has brilliant buildup in tension. "Empire Of The Gun" has dramatic guitar dueling melodies and a nice incredible clean chorus, in perfect contrast with the heavy riffs and hardcore verses. That should be a successful radio single! The more familiar heaviness sounds great in "War of Attrition", sounding like the more typical God Forbid from 5 years prior.
The progressive ambition in "The New Clear" is just nuclear, sounding nothing like the typical God Forbid, with the subdued vibes of Opeth and Amorphis in the late 90s. "Shallow" is a vicious thrasher. The melodic "Walk Alone" sounds closer to traditional heavy metal that is rare to find in the 21st century.
"Bat the Angels" sounds like a more progressive outtake from their previous album IV: Constitution of Treason, especially the return to Drop C tuning, dramatic ambient breaks, and political samples in the outro. But that song ain't as progressive as the final two! The title track and "Gaia (The Vultures)" are the two longest songs of the album and by the band at 9 and 7 minutes, respectively. They have more traditional progressive dynamics than ever before, alternating between the band's usual thick heavy riffs and different atmospheric passages. And they both have superb standout moments! What makes the title track stand out is the epic-sounding acoustic intro. "Gaia (The Vultures)" is known for the moody vocal harmonies done by one man with one note. A great final punch!
After releasing Earthsblood, God Forbid started falling apart with the subsequent departure of Dallas Coyle and their split-up shortly after one more great but underwhelming album a few years later. Maybe it was because they've maxed out their limits with this album, and their next one Equilibrium has confirmed the end of the road. All I know is how excellent Earthsblood is. Older metal fans don't really care for this band as much as Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage, and think they're they selling out from those two bands, but how their music is supposed to sound like doesn't matter. What matters is the spontaneous surprises God Forbid has stored, and Earthsblood has it all!
Favorites: "Empire of the Gun", "The New Clear", "Bat the Angels", "Earthsblood", "Gaia (The Vultures)"
Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, Unearth, and Killswitch Engage are all known as founders of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal that have exploded into fame thanks to MTV2 Headbangers Ball. However, God Forbid have never achieved as much as success as their peers and end up missing the tour that would bring them to fame.
God Forbid wouldn't give up or waste anymore time though, so they recorded an album more superior than previous albums and taking them to almost the same level as their NWOAHM peers. IV: Constitution of Treason is a discovery for a new young metalheads with all the band's brilliant talents and compelling songwriting. It is a concept album about falling civilization, and I'm writing this review when my country's about to be locked down due to coronavirus, so the timing couldn't be better than this!
This album has 3 multi-song articles, "Twilight of Civilization", "In the Darkest Hour, There Was One" and "Devolution". Beginning and enhancing the "Twilight of Civilization" is "The End of The World", beginning with an epic acoustic rising to electric intro as a sign of everyone first hearing of a deadly virus that's spreading all over the world. As the actual heaviness begins, everyone outside panics and begins running to their respective homes, unaware that the virus has caught up with most of them. Then it's on to the strongest track of the album, the headbanging "Chains of Humanity", binding together extreme Megadeth-like riffing with an intense yet melodic chorus. The "STRENGTH! BEYOND STRENGTH!!" bridge with Byron Davis’ shouting really gives the song more commanding force, as the government begins planning their ultimate motive to stop this plague of injustice, but it never succeeds. "Into the Wasteland" is also crushing and heavy with a ripping solo by Jason Suecof, producer of this album and some Trivium albums, great soundtrack for when the virus infects and kills almost everyone in their homes.
"Lonely Dead" begins "In the Darkest Hour, There Was One" with headbanging riffs for a minute followed by a catchy lead. The lyrics serve good metaphors for this part of the scenario where after the virus apocalypse, the remaining living people mourning all of the dead victims. Byron Davis continues his screaming while the Coyle brothers sing cleanly in the chorus while doing some great guitar work. Pretty cool post-solo riff! And that catchy lead riff returns again at the 4 and a half minute mark. Satisfying! The pretty piano outro was played by the Coyle brothers' dad Kevin Coyle. Those brothers really got their music talents from their Dad, did they? There's more vicious attack in "Divinity" with a hammering riff that pounds their peers hard with more unforgiving vocals. "Under This Flag" continues the pummeling riffing. The chorus is basically just a breakdown that shouldn't be taken farther. Then it slows down with a new repeated riff. It's not the best transition but it's OK because of Byron's solid vocals. Then the chorus breakdown and the slower post-chorus returns again. Then all this next slow eerie section has is solitary guitar and vocals that rise in tension, with the guitars at some parts of the section becoming massive and the vocals return to screaming. Predictably repetitive, but works for me! "To the Fallen Hero" is an anthem with crushing guitar tones and a sing-along chorus that tributes to the fallen government who tried their best to stop the virus but were overpowered by the virus and were infected and killed, leading to the downfall of the entire country and later the world.
"Welcome to the Apocalypse" begins the "Devolution". It's a slow depressive ballad that reflects the somber scenario where the sole survivors look at the aftermath of the apocalypse and don't know what they can do now. Towards the end, there's a political narration. The best song here is the title track, having the right heaviness for the riffs and the right attitude for the vocals. At this point, seeing no point in moving on through this barren world, the remaining survivors decided to fight each other to the death until one man remains. "Crucify Your Beliefs" keeps going from the previous track with a content feeling. After all the other survivors killed themselves in that fight to the death, the last remaining man on Earth wanders around the abandoned city. Feeling lonely and losing all hope for life to ever go on, he climbs the stairs up to the roof of a skyscraper and jumps off to his death. During the piano outro, we visualize one last look of the Earth, now abandoned and lifeless, all due to that deadly virus.
Every song has staggering attention and detail, and very minimal flaws. I wish metalcore bands would put as much effort as God Forbid did in this album, so the genre can be respected more. While metal bands nowadays wanna keep relieving the 80s, God Forbid delivers an album that never has any happy ballads and instead focuses on heavy songs based on society's downfall. It's rare to find this much talent and integrity. IV: Constitution of Treason is another timeless classic that would be mentioned for many years even when the world collapses in the coronavirus, but we certainly will never let the virus take control. Do your part to keep the world safe, and also enjoy this album!
Favorites: "The End of The World", "Into the Wasteland", "Lonely Dead", "To The Fallen Hero", "Constitution of Treason"
Before I've even heard of this band God Forbid, the only song I knew with the title "Gone Forever" is a song by one of my alt-rock/post-grunge-loving brother's favorite bands Three Days Grace, and when I heard that song when I was much younger, long before I started listening to actual metal, I thought, "Mm, good song." Little did I know, over 5 years later, I would be listening to another song and album titled by "Gone Forever" that I think it's way better!
First off, that cover artwork by the legendary Travis Smith is really impressive, showing an eagle in apocalyptic background ruins. 3 years after the melodeath-metalcore Determination, God Forbid came back with their third album Gone Forever with a higher style range of classic thrash influences added to their hardcore.
"Force-Fed" opens the album with thrashy melodeath riffs until the destructive screaming from vocalist Byron Davis comes in. This track shows God Forbid's melodic sense inspired by Killswitch Engage, while the heavier mosh-like parts with more of Byron's screaming really kicks a**. There's also some hymn-like clean singing. And in the end, there's a true heavy metal guitar solo! The second track "Antihero" is one of my favorite songs from this band. Melodic guitar leads cuts through my eardrums to the point of breaking them until it makes way for shattering mid-tempo moshing riffs with sweet angry vocals. Then it's back to the Arch Enemy-like melodeath/thrash mayhem! The clean singing is more prominent in the chorus of "Better Days", taken from its eponymous EP released a year earlier. That song has such an upbeat riff.
"Precious Lie" also has a somber clean chorus surrounding heavier verses, but that makes the song a little too predictable. At least the short solo is nicely unique. "Washed-Our-World" has more predictable clean vocals, but once again there's good riffs and a well-done solo. That song can be a bit draggy due to its length, but it still has some good stuff. "Living Nightmare" starts with a Trivium-like opening riff. The song goes on decently until an awful breakdown at the end of the second third of the song which gets wiped away by awesome solos and an amazing melodic thrash ending.
"Soul Engraved" is a killer song with catchy riffs. What really helps it stand out is the clean chorus by guest member Thomas Cummings, later known as Bad Wolves vocalist Tommy Vext, and Nevermore guitarist Jeff Loomis performing an awesome shredding solo which unfortunately fades out when it's still great. The title track is another awesome song with a good soloing. "Judge The Blood" has a great piano intro, good riffs, melodic solos, clean vocals, and invading breakdowns, all in a decent dish.
HOLY COW!! What an outstanding album! Gone Forever is an aggressive mix of thrash, melodeath, and hardcore you just gotta get. And it's a nice pump-up before the even better IV: Constitution of Treason. GO GET IT!
Favorites: "Antihero", "Better Days", "Living Nightmare", "Soul Engraved", "Gone Forever"
So after God Forbid released their first album Reject the Sickness which is so unknown that barely anyone has listened to it, and even then it sounds so poor quality and the instrumentation and vocals are so messed up that it deserves to stay unknown, did this band give up? No way! They did their second attempt in making an album and the end result is Determination, an album much better than the cruddy debut, though a few details would be better fixed.
God Forbid made an album that I would consider their real debut. They knew much better what they've been doing and handled their metal with care, from beautiful to crushing, from melodic to dissonant. Their solos and breakdowns rule the metalcore world in anger.
I love the intro, "Dawn of the Millennia". It's a good flowing pump-up to what's coming next. Then "Nothing" gives you a p*ssed flying kick in the face! Byron Davis' furious vocals alongside the pummeling music really shows you what a solid album Determination is gonna be. If you thought that song is heavy and dissonant, listen to the next one "Broken Promise". It's so f***ing heavy, combining the more brutal influences from chaotic extreme metalcore bands like Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. You can very well hear those influences in the great breakdowns, along with the overall intense chaos. "Divide My Destiny" is more melodic while staying heavy, here delivering different influences from Gothenburg melodeath bands like At the Gates and In Flames.
Both of those metalcore and melodeath influences are mixed in "Network". After a transition from the previous track and a clean intro, the brutal dissonance starts again, then they add in melodic riffs and solos. More of this style switching continues beautifully in this album, especially in the wicked next track "Wicked", which mixes metalcore rhythms with melodeath leads. The second half of the album heads into full melodeath territory while keeping some metalcore elements, starting with "Determination Part 1". The best song here is "Determination Part 2", which even though the vocals are more spoken than growled, the nice little acoustic intro highlights the band's melody.
Returning to their decent venture through heaviness is "Go Your Own Way", which is OK but there are so many ideas in here that don't fit well together and end up being overplayed too hard. That song does its best when they have their fast thrash feel because the drums keep the fills down to give the riffing necessary space for the listener's attention. The general problem in the instrumental "God's Last Gift" is, while it returns to the earlier metalcore instrumentation, it would work better with more powerful drumming and the usual vocals, but that would make this song sound too much like Mastodon at that time. "A Reflection of the Past" is kinda like the acoustic outro for "God's Last Gift", though it probably shouldn't have been separated into its own track. "Dead Words on Deaf Ears" is the 6-minute closer of the album and probably the band's farthest away from metalcore into melodeath. Great ending! Thank you, God Forbid, for not fading it out halfway through.
If you're a fan of pummeling melodic metalcore, this is a good album for you. God Forbid can punch you hard with brutal breakdowns then massage your ears with beautiful solos, all in a natural flow. The songs are in perfect order, as if they're an entire musical concept. Once you listen to this whole thing, you know how determined this band is....
Favorites: "Nothing", "Broken Promise", "Wicked", "Determination Part 2", "Dead Words on Deaf Ears"
God Forbid is one of three metal bands with "God" in their moniker that began to rise in the late 90s and continued through the new millennium, alongside one of my nu-metal-loving brother's favorite bands Godsmack and one of my favorite post-thrash bands Lamb of God. I like God Forbid the best out of the 3, but they're the least known. Despite their great attempt to make impressive metalcore, their first release Reject the Sickness is their least known album and will probably stay that f***ing way.
Something God Forbid has that's different from bands that play melodic metalcore (Killswitch Engage) or progressive metalcore (the early Between the Buried and Me) is the thrash and hardcore influences while sprinkling some Gothenburg spice inspired by The Haunted and In Flames. Another different thing about God Forbid compared to the more recent metalcore bands is keeping away from the clean emo singing. I love this classic kind of metalcore, so why not this album? Vocalist Byron Davis' attempt in heaving death growls are a h*ll of a poor impression. Guitars are way chunkier than peanut butter, occasionally scattering generic lead harmonies.
While I won't go into too much detail in the songs because of their sh*ttiness, "N2" has some horrid dissonant harmonies you wanna stay away from if you don't want your eardrums to break. One harrowing thing is the amount of breakdowns. I like breakdowns, but does there have to be over a hundred of them!? Plus, a breakdown in the beginning of a song? YOU'VE DONE NOTHING YET!!! Thank greatness this album is so short, just a half-hour of agony with barely any speed or creativity. The lyrics are terrible too, just about romance and loathing. With that short length and poor quality, this album is more of a demo than an actual studio album. The only song that sounds good is "The Century Fades" but it fades out after just one minute and 20 seconds!! WHAT THE SH*T!!? They killed an opportunity to have a potentially decent full song!
But what really levels up the score to 3 stars is the rhythm part of the lineup. The bassist does a great job sounding audible and the drummer has impressive skills, so it sounds like they saved this album from being a full stinker like that g****mn Exterminator album. Well I suppose the more emo-ish metalcore bands like Atreyu and Poison the Well have more overrated sadness and anger. Reject the Sickness is actually just the one mold of the band's discography bread. I enjoy their later albums that are "progressive modern thrash" kind of metalcore. So unless you want a brain tumor, reject the sickness of Reject the Sickness and move on to the rest of the God Forbid discography....
Favorites: "The Century Fades" (if it was a full song instead of FADING IT OUT AFTER JUST A MINUTE, FOR F***'S SAKE!!)
Before you begin listening to the latest Born of Osiris album The Simulation, you'll very well find something to surprise you...the length! You might be wondering, "I waited 3 years after Soul Sphere for another short literally 8-track EP (after The Eternal Reign)???" Well the band considers this an album, but it's only a few minutes longer than The New/Eternal Reign. Seriously, album or EP?? This is actually part 1 of a studio album, and the second album would be out later this year. You know another band who's on Sumerian Records recently? Between the Buried and Me, another favorite band of mine! I'm guessing BTBAM's two Automata albums released last year might've influenced Sumerian and Osiris into that new marketing strategy, or if it's just a strange coincidence, I don't know.
After two direct responses (Tomorrow We Die Alive and Soul Sphere) to the breakthrough, The Discovery, The Simulation continues to look back at the past, alongside some ferocious new hints. The lyrics continue the theme of technology vs. humanity, now in a whole new concept that would continue in the next album, delivered with the band's trademark fury and rage. You already saw my reference to The Eternal Reign, right? Well that's the band's 10th anniversary re-recording of The New Reign EP plus a song from their early demo days. The music production is a direct reflection, keeping the raging intensity, but not that much for the keyboards, without being New Reign 2.0.
The first track of The Simulation, "The Accursed" has a central role of futuristic synth work inspired by progressive rock titans Pink Floyd at the same time as a progressive djent-core offering filled with a hooky chorus of alternating vocals between Joe Buras and Ronnie Canizaro, down-tuned bass, and angry guitar riffs, twisting and turning back and forth constantly for just 3 and a half minutes. "Disconnectome" is another 3-minute song that cancels out accessibility. Massive riffs, synth interludes, and even a sick symphonic black metal influence that fits well in the band's electronic-cinematic aesthetic alongside rolling drums. "Cycles of Tragedy" cycles through frantic driving poly-rhythms while finding its way through layering strings and synthesizing piano accenting the other elements of dual leads and chugging bass. And the song works right with the interplay of clean and harsh vocals.
"Under the Gun" has a possessive infectious hook over declarative vocals and keyboards in a deep dimension of guitar wrath. "Recursion" is an under one minute interlude that's not totally interesting but a good set up for the next song. "Analogs in a Cell" takes things into a provoking direction with more djent influences similar to Tesseract.
The nearly profound "Silence the Echo" is the album's finest hour- I mean, finest 4 and a half minutes, showing some cinematic influences over massive technical death metal/progressive djent-core. The closer, "One Without the Other" is OK, but it's just doesn't work right without another song that would segue into the next album, leaving behind an abrupt awkward ending. That's the price to pay for splitting an album in half.
There's compelling songwriting and imaginative production with The Simulation. Even when Born of Osiris look back at the past, they still have their strength, execution, and courage to move through new directions. Now I don't wanna be rude while still trying to add some politeness when I say this, but.... Born of Osiris, please HEAD YOUR A***S BACK INTO MAKING THAT NEXT ALBUM!!!
Favorites: "The Accursed", "Disconnectome", "Analogs in a Cell", "Silence the Echo"
Every new album by Born of Osiris is a new experimentation. Their first release, the EP The New Reign, was one of the first well-known Sumerian Records releases and helped bring both the band and Sumerian to prominence. Their first full album, A Higher Place, is one of their most interesting albums with more experimentation in rhythm and chord progressions. The Discovery toned down the experimentation but their songwriting is more refined with higher amount of lead playing. Tomorrow We Die Alive disappointed most Born of Osiris fans with less technical guitar work and over-emphasized keyboards. I still liked that one as much as the other albums.
Soul Sphere, their fourth album (fifth if including The New Reign), is not exactly A Higher Place 2.0, but it does take you back to their beloved old aspects while keeping their new tendencies. That's enough to make perhaps the band's most satisfying well-rounded album yet! Especially in their strong diversity, with every song having at least several memorable moments and more differentiated characteristics.
"The Other Half of Me" starts the album on a spooky note with its suspenseful futuristic electronic intro, before the epic chaotic song itself. The next track "Throw Me in the Jungle" has some of the most varying vocal styles in a Born of Osiris song; lows, mids, highs, cleans, you name it. However, the harsh/clean dueling chorus is a little flat and the lyrics can be a bit confusing, but that doesn't affect the rest of the album. "Free Fall" continues the harsh/clean dueling but this time lets the song stay in purely wild greatness. "Illuminate" has more of the harsh/clean vocal power in the chorus.
"The Sleeping and the Dead" foreshadows the band returning to the Higher Place era later on. "Tidebinder" has quite the mid-tempo headbanging groove along with oriental-influenced synths. "Resilience" has the band's trademark arpeggio riffing. The blast beats in "Goddess of the Dawn" trace back to the more brutal sound of The New Reign.
"The Louder the Sound, the More We All Believe" begins with an EDM-inspired intro, and despite the slightly cringe-worthy chorus, the loudness continues to shine, and the louder the sound, the more I believe in this song being amazing. "Warlords" does the melodic chorus as well, but makes a surprising change of pace and tone with screaming vocals going from one catchy line to another before the excellent harsh/clean interplay. "River of Time" once again starts with spooky electronica before the rest of the song descends into chaos. "The Composer" is probably the most monstrous yet well-composed song in the album. Pure djent-core with keyboard-orchestral background before ending in a straight-forward electronic-glitch outro. Pretty confusing, but an effective ending!
With Soul Sphere, Born of Osiris made a true cohesive return to the strong aspects of their older form. Not a complete imitation, but a bursting evolution! This is some of the band's most complete material with all the drums, guitars, keyboards, and vocals in a friendly interplaying battle. A memorable album with engaging moments that help put the band safely back in the map of their stylistic creation....
Favorites: "The Other Half of Me", "Free Fall", "The Louder the Sound, the More We All Believe", "The Composer"