Engel - "Absolute Design" (SPV)

Long awaited album from Swedish Scene darlings throws a bit of a curve-ball...

Back in early 2006, Engel released their song "Casket Closing" on their MySpace page and later on a free Metal Hammer CD. It was, simply put, absolutely killer. It had everything: soaring vocals, harsh vocals, chugging riffs, guitar hooks and a melody that would just not let go.

Then they released this album. And I scratched my head in confusion. Produced by Anders Friden (In Flames' vocalist and sometime producer extraordinaire), "Casket Closing" now sounds closer to 1980s disco than Melodic Death Metal. The vocals have been almost completely cleaned up, with extra pop-melodies layered on top, completely stripping the song of most of its edge.

The rest of the album also confused me. "Next Closed Day" is an excellent song that mixes Duran Duran with heavy guitars and yet another chorus that I can't help but warble along with. Really, it's an excellent song.

Now, elsewhere on the album, the band exhibits a diminished sense of originality. Vocals often bring to mind Static-X's angry outbursts (particularly on "The Hurrican Season", "Trial And Error" and "Propaganda"), and at other times songs feel like they're about to do something amazing but then give away the store to do something either weird or "eccentric".

There is lots to appreciate on this album (particularly the guitar-work, which is melodic and exemplary throughout the album), but after the truly excellent demo version of "Casket Closing" and the subsequent reinvention of the song and the band's sound, it can't help but feel a little like a let-down. I'd still recommend buying it (especially if you didn't hear the advance song), but also try to get the demo version, too. After the initial disappointment, I listened to this album constantly for a week, and it's now one of my favourites, filled with varying styles, ideas and textures that raise it above the level of many other melodic-&-heavy bands currently being touted as the next big things.

These guys could very well be big, given the chance. Do your part to help out, and buy this album.

Stand-out tracks: "Casket Closing", "Next Closed Day", "Propaganda", "The Paraclete", "Scythe"

http://www.engelpropaganda.com/ / www.myspace.com/engelmusic

Submersed - "Immortal Verses" (Wind-Up)

Another forgettable album

Submersed are another young band from the Wind-Up Records stable who continue to release albums that are, more or less, forgettable. Sure, there are some nice melodies thrown in there, the occassional guitar riff that catches one's ear, but other than that, it's completely forgettable. In fact, having listened to it a few times now, I can't recall a single song. At all. Like their debut, In Due Time (2004), there is one song that one notices; on this album it's "Better Think Again", which is track one. On their debut, it was "Hollow", which was track one. Sadly, Submersed are one of those bands that front-load their albums with their one or two best songs, and fill the rest with sub-standard songs (see also now-defunct Closure and Clockwise). It's a pity, as they occasionally do display flashes of inspiration and originality.

When compared with other albums on Wind-Up - such as Seether and Megan McCauley (both of whom have recently released very good albums) - it's a wonder people at the label don't wonder why they keep Submersed around.

More rocking than elevator music, but not rocking enough to make much of a dent, I really wonder whether anyone's going to notice or remember this album in a couple of months.

I have nothing more to say on the album. Check it out if you have nothing else to do.

http://www.submersed.com/ / www.myspace.com/submersed

Soilwork - "Sworn To A Great Divide" (Nuclear Blast)

Yet another heavy, melodic masterpiece from Bjorn & Co.

This will just be a quick review as, while an excellent album, if you know Soilwork’s previous material then there will be little on Sworn To A Great Divide that will be a surprise.

Soilwork are one of the best bands out of Sweden, along with In Flames and up-and-comers Sonic Syndicate and Engel (review coming soon). However, like these other bands, they have broken away from the ever-growing pack of Melodic Death Metal/Gothenburg scenesters and have forged ahead with their own blend of heaviness and melody.

In some ways similar to Scar Symmetry in that they mix not only melodic guitar lines with roared and screamed vocals, but also proper, clean vocals that are truly remarkable! The fact that they both come from the same throat makes it all the more impressive.

As hinted in the first sentence, this is Soilwork exactly as we would expect them to sound. While some have decided that this is a bad thing, I think that’s very far from the truth. With bands constantly trying to reinvent themselves or jump from one bandwagon to another (Avenged Sevenfold please stand up), it’s refreshing for a great, talented band to stick with what they know they do better than everyone else.

The first few tracks start things off heavier than previous album Stabbing The Drama, but following that we are entertained by 11 more stunning blends of brash heaviness and sing-along melodicism. There’s no great variation in structure between the songs, but that’s not to say that they are all carbon copies of each other. The similarities allow the album to blend into a cohesive whole which makes it all the easier on the ears.

“Breeding Thorns” is a track that particularly stands out in my mind, mixing all the instrumental elements we’ve come to love from Soilwork, not to mention three different singing styles (roared, sung and something that falls in the middle of the two). It’s also impossible not to be lifted by this song. That, actually, is one of the defining things about Soilwork’s music: despite it being heavy and angry, each song has a distinct uplifting feel to it. It’s strange, but I love it. The album passes the goosebump test, easily.

Not the most expansive review, or even the most detailed considering how much I love the band, but every song on here is one that deserves attention. Soilwork are a band that doesn’t need flowery or poetic prose, they just need your attention. Sure, Sworn To A Great Divide is not the best album in the world, but this is as close as heavy music can gets to highly-consumable without being pop or Linkin Park.

Go buy this album. It works, on every level that an album should. It would also act as a perfect bridge for anyone who wants to delve deeper into heavier music but hasn't completely committed to it, yet.

www.soilwork.org / www.myspace.com/soilwork

Nuclear Blast All-Stars - "Out Of The Dark" (Nuclear Blast)

An exercise in modern metal, blistering guitars, and melodic screaming…

This album took my pleasantly by surprise. Following the considerable success of Roadrunner’s All-Star Sessions, I was concerned this might end up being a cheap imitation. On the contrary, however, it is actually a highly accomplished and polished collection of modern metal – true, it’s populated mainly by Scandinavians, but modern metal is something they do oh-so-very well.

While the songs all feature different vocalists, they manage to create a cohesive whole that makes it seem as if this could really be an album from a single band – no small feat considering the eleven (!) vocalists who took part in the project. The first two opening tracks, “Dysfunctional Hours” (featuring the ever-excellent Anders Friden of In Flames) and “Schizo” (featuring multi-talented Hypocricy’s Pete Tatgren), start things off with two fast-paced, expertly executed slices of melodic death metal, with the most melodic screaming I have ever heard.

Clean vocals make an appearance on “Devotion” and “The Overshadowing”, while retaining the heavier, coarser vocals to ensure the songs don’t disrupt the overall feel and punch of this album. Having said this, the middle of the album features the majority of “cleaner” vocals (i.e. little or no screaming), with “The Dawn Of All” proving to be an excellent rock/metal song, and one of Bjorn Strid’s most accomplished vocal performances, as well as the biggest and most sweeping song on the album. The bruising follow-up track, “Cold Is My Vengeance” re-ups the ante by packing a wallop, and Maurizio Iacono’s harsh vocals over furious drums and staccato guitars leaves us in no doubt that this is first-and-foremost a metal compilation.

While I was only expecting to like the songs which featured my favourite vocalists (the aforementioned Anders Friden and Pete Tatgren; Bjorn Strid of Soilwork on “The Dawn Of All”; the boys from Sonic Syndicate on “The Gilded Dagger”), every single one of these songs offered something to keep me interested and listening again and again, and could easily act as singles.

If ever you needed an introduction to Nuclear Blast’s heavier bands, Out Of Darkness is your ideal album. True to each vocalist’s sound, yet a cohesive whole, this is an excellent album, and does an impeccable job of both providing an excellent showcase for Nuclear Blast’s leading male vocalists, as well as a collection of kick-ass metal music.

Incidentally, Nuclear Blast’s female vocalists were catered for with the preceding NB All-Stars collection, Into The Light.

Highly recommended for even the casual metal fan, and an essential purchase for Melodic Death Metal and Metalcore fans the world over.

www.nuclearblast.de

Karnivool - "Themata" (Bieler Bros.)

A long awaited delight from Australia’s latest, greatest exports.

Karnivool’s Themata is an exercise in melody and sweeping soundscapes, eliciting an emotional response normally associated with classical music, rather than the rock genre. From the opening track “Cote” to the closing bars of “Change (Part 1)” the band have explored various methods and styles of melody, each creating unique songs yet at the same time maintaining a cohesiveness that makes Themata a thoroughly rewarding listen.

Comparisons can be drawn with Boy Hits Car (especially on the best track on the album, “Themata”) and fellow Australians The Butterfly Effect and, at a push, Tool. In an environment filled with metalcore and emo clones, it’s refreshing to hear bands coming out with more individual sounds that defy pigeon-holing. The aforementioned title-track, for example, while kind-of-conventional in structure has some of the most emotional, melodic and soaring choruses that remain strangely understated. With vocalist Ian Kenney’s voice switching between a range of pitches and tempos, backed up impeccably by the instrumentalists in the band (particularly the oft-fuzzed-up guitars). Truly excellent stuff, and I would bet money that this could make an excellent single.

With a distinctive sound that runs throughout the album, while still retaining variation and surprises, Themata should have something for everyone, but at the same time might not be recommended for those who like simple, 1-2-3 music (i.e. pop music), with simple structures and so forth.

Difficult to describe, but well worth checking out, Karnivool is a band that you should look out for in the future as they prepare to release their next album (Themata was released some years ago in their Australia).

www.karnivool.com.au / www.myspace.com/karnivool

OneSideZero - "OneSideZero" (Corporate Punishment)

After six years in the wilderness, OneSideZero return to show everyone how it’s done. Again.

On 2001’s Is This Room Getting Smaller? album, OneSideZero dropped an album of immense melody and intense musicianship on a relatively unsuspecting music scene. Different from the vastly popular and over-populated Nu-Metal scene, they peddled more melodies in one song than many band of the day had on an entire album.

Now back with their eponymous sophomore release, it’s really like they never left. “Carry Your Gun” opens proceedings with a bang, blending all the elements we’ve come to treasure (soft, husky melodic parts and more angst-ridden verses). This would make a very good single.

One of the best things about this band is that they defy comparisons – there really is no one else out there that sounds like them. True, they have certain elements that might sound (if only read about) pretty standard, but when you actually hear Jason Radford’s vocals, how he is able to switch effortlessly from a clean, almost angelic sung vocal to a rabble-rousing cry for revolution (“Breath”) is refreshing to say the least. Think Tool if it was fronted by someone who could not only write a decent melody, but also stick with it for long enough for everyone to care, mixed with the instrumentation of Jimmy Eat World or Strata at their harshest. Perhaps not the best description, but that’s the image my mind conjures when I think about it.

While for a long time we only had lead single “My Confession” to whet our appetites in the lead up to OneSideZero’s release, the song is another microcosm of OSZ’s sound, with its rousing choruses and harsher middle-eight, if you like the single, you will definitely like the whole album. It has become a heavy-rotation song on my stereo and playlist (actually, it’s on there twice, to make it more prevalent).

It’s not all balls-to-the-wall metallic melody, though; “Levitation” brings things back to a more calm pace, a moment of calm respite after the three opening cuts.

While I wouldn’t go as far as to say the album as a whole is perfect, it has a clutch of near-perfect songs to make it a necessary purchase for anyone who loves metal, and also for those who are perhaps tiring of the metalcore and emo scenes. OneSideZero contains enough to hold the attention of devout fans of both genres, and they would benefit from getting their paws on this great album.

www.onesidezero.com / www.myspace.com/onesidezero

Funeral For A Friend - "Tales Don't Tell Themselves" (Mighty Atom/Atlantic/Warner Bros.)

Welsh superstars return with their most radio-friendly disc to date

"Into Oblivion (Reunion)", the first single and album opener, starts things off very much as they mean to go on: massive choruses, great instrumentation, hooks galore and tight playing and writing.

It must be said that I was originally sceptical about their new, more commercial direction - apart from "Into Oblivion", I had heard a couple of tracks on HMV's radio station (I spend a lot of time in there), and thought that the songs sounded just alright, rather than great. But, having listened to this album in its entirety, it certainly has a completely different impact as a single, cohesive body of work.

To put it simply, this is a very good album. True, it doesn't have the punky urgency or anger as their debut (2003's Casually Dressed & Deep In Conversation - one of my favourite albums ever), the band members have clearly grown as musicians, and the writing on Tales Don't Tell Themselves is more daring and they appear to have pushed the envelope more than they ever seemed brave enough to do. It's an effort that has certainly paid off.

Unfortunately, there is only so much that can be written about the album, other than it's really very well written and a very satisfying listening experience. Summery without being sickly, catchy as it needs to be, this is an album that will work very well with the top down, and cruising along in sunny California. Which just makes it so very weird that these guys are from Wales...

Other tracks that stand out are "The Great Wide Open", "The Diary" (nice additional female vocals), "Out Of Reach" (a heavier, faster track) to name but three.

A refreshing breath of fresh air from a band distancing themselves from the Emo crowd. Recommended.

www.funeralforafriend.com / www.myspace.com/funeralforafriend

Sonic Syndicate - "Only Inhuman" (Nuclear Blast)

Sonic Syndicate are a breath of fresh air for the Melodic Death Metal genre. Blending the driving, technically impressive and above all melodic instrumentation that we have all come to love from this genre, Sonic Syndicate take it yet another step further with their vocals, joining the prestigious ranks of In Flames and Soilwork as bands willing to utilise a more conventional singing style, along with their (readily understandable) screams and roars.

It’s hard to believe that they needed to join a competition to get a record deal, as the strength of their music is near-unparalleled. A nod from Anders Friden of In Flames fame won’t hurt much, either!

While a cohesive body of work, Only Inhuman comprises 12 unique tracks, mixing more melodic moments with heavier, fist-pumping metal. With the brothers Sjunnessen forming the back-bone of the band (Richard on vocals, Roger and Robin on guitars – and what amazing guitar playing!), Karin Axelsson providing bass duties as well as some vocals, John Bengtsson pounding the drums and further vocals provided by Roland Johansson, the band are able to provide a diverse sound that sounds fresh, urgent and so very, very catchy. While recognisably Melodic Death Metal, the band have managed to create a sound that remains very much their own, without paying overt homage to any of their influences. An admirable feat for a genre that has started to sound more and more formulaic and just a little stale (check out Dark Tranquility’s latest, Fiction, for sad proof of this).

From the opening bars of “Aftermath” to the closing notes of “Flashback” (and everything in between), Only Inhuman presses all the right buttons, never allowing the pace of delivery to drop. The songs are huge, anthemic and infectious. It’s almost impossible not to fall immediately in love with this band (and their strikingly beautiful bass player).

If you like heavy, melodic music, Sonic Syndicate are your new favourite band. Only Inhuman is as close to flawless as an album can get.

Stand-out Tracks: “Psychic Suicide”, “Double Agent 616”, “Callous”… I know I’ve said this before, but every single song on Only Inhuman requires your immediate attention. An essential 2007 purchase.

http://www.sonicsyndicate.com / www.myspace.com/sonicsyndicate

3 Mile Scream - "A Prelude To Our Demise" (Corporate Punishment)

Blistering metal for the new generation.

Following in the wake of multiple plaudits from peers and fans alike, 3 Mile Scream’s debut was a hotly anticipated release. It would seem that almost everyone in the heavy music world has been impressed by this band – including (most notably) Arch Enemy, God Forbid, Unearth, Byzantine, Kataklysm, and Unearth. Everyone who’s come in contact with the band seems to have something very positive about 3 Mile Scream. You can add MWRI to this growing list (even though we have nowhere near the pull of the aforementioned fans).

To begin with, ‘Scream’ is a good word to include in their monicker, and Matt McGachy can certainly do this with great aplomb! His less extreme vocals are also not bad, and add a great melodic element to the band’s sound. Unlike some bands, when you’ll be particularly impressed by a certain facet of the band’s sound, 3 Mile Scream appear to be one of those bands which manage to create a cohesive whole, with every member’s input being as equally important to the final product as the next. This is particularly evident on the first song proper on the album, “Mourning The Lost” which, starting as the band mean to continue, hits us with a sucker-punch of speed, brutality and tempered melodic moments that would make even the most cynical metal fan hit the repeat button. ("Confession" is another particularly fine song.)

As good as this album is, it’s not reinventing the wheel to any great extent, but the band do a very good job of providing their listeners with enough diversity and inspired song-writing to keep everyone interested from beginning to end. This is particularly evident on “Forced Entry”, perhaps my favourite song on the album (and could actually qualify for a single).

One might mistakenly slot them into the metalcore genre, but 3 Mile Scream have such a diverse pallet (including Thrash, Death Metal, Melodic Metal, and perhaps Hard Rock) that it might just be better to call them Metal (capital ‘M’, of course).

Furious, brutal, fast, in-your-face, technically impressive and occasionally melodic in all the right moments, A Prelude To Our Demise provides much for every heavy music fan.

Surely now the album is available, the praise will only snowball. Well worth checking out.

www.myspace.com/3milescream

Dimmu Borgir - "In Sorte Diaboli" (Nuclear Blast)

Dimmu Borgir return with another masterpiece to retain their Black Metal Throne.

This album turned out to be very different from what I was expecting, pleasantly so. Dimmu’s dark symphonic tendencies are still firmly intact, exhibiting the band’s continued growth and skill at both composition and execution of their dark and heavy style. This album grabbed my attention far quicker than their previous albums, and is far more ambitious than previous outings. It should certainly slake any fan's thirst for blistering symphonic black metal.

In the fashion of Satyricon’s Now Diabolical (Roadrunner, 2006), Dimmu have gone for a much bigger sound, as they have before, utilising the superior production skills of Fredrik Nordstrom once again. As is expected from the master of Fredman Studios, the production and sound quality is impeccable. There are hints of many bands, here, if you want an idea of who they’ve influenced: Children Of Bodom and, especially, Cradle Of Filth (though, Dimmu are far easier to like than Dani’s crew).

The problem with reviewing this album is that other than stipulating that it is a very good Symphonic Black Metal album, it doesn’t provide enough opportunities for effusive praise for either expanding or breaking any boundaries that the band have already set themselves. Needless to say, this is a very good album and should please former fans of the band as well as hopefully open up their music to a wider fan-base. Given Nuclear Blast placing high priority on promoting this album, this could well be Dimmu Borgir’s year.

A concept album, the songs blend brilliantly into each other, neither jarring the listener with sudden changes or going unnoticed. The clean vocals on opening track “The Serpentine Offering” are a nice addition.

Yet another example of a 2007 release that has lived up to the great anticipation that has preceded its release. Individual, heavy, orchestral and great – everything a black metal album should be.

www.dimmu-borgir.com / www.myspace.com/dimmuborgir

Ghost Machine - "Hypersensitive" (Corporate Punishment)

Ghost Machine, featuring members of the sadly-dead Motograter, have returned to our stereos with an esoteric, industrialised listening experience that is not entirely comfortable... Unlike with some bands, though, this is actually not a bad thing.

Intro track "The End" is truly creepy; with heavily industrialised instrumentation mixed with clean and helium-fuelled vocals, it could very well come straight from a horror movie.

In fact, that is a good analogy to run with, for Hypersensitive: it's the musical equivalent of the current stream of popular horror movies that are breaking cinema records at the moment. It's thrilling, exciting, different, but also rather unsettling.

The vocals are superb, mixing some amazing singing and distraught screams that only add to the despairing, suffocating atmosphere of tracks like "Sheltered". If you were fortunate enough to catch Motograter's eponymous release, then you might find that a lot of Ghost Machine's output sounds like the best parts of that album. The reason I spend so much time on the vocals is that they truly are the most striking element to Ghost Machine's sound - "Headstone" in particular showcases some exceptional singing blending hints of Tool's more normal moments, as well as sharing some elements with labelmates Onesidezero (new album out in June). However, these similarities are only in terms of style as, in terms of actual sound, Ivan's vocals are unique in pitch and delivery. Really quite amazing.

The music dips and soars throughout the album, hitting emotional peaks and wrenching troughs, never predictable but never sloppily put together. The songwriting is exceptional, as has become expected from Corporate Punishment's growing (and increasingly impressive) stable of bands.

The use of bizarre interludes is one of the devices the band has brought over from their days in Motograter. While for the previous band it was every other track, Ghost Machine rein themselves in a little bit more, making the album progress much smoother. Though, in truth, leaving out some of the more bizarre ones might have made this album gel better, and allowed the stream of soaring, emotive songs constant, rather than being interrupted by the occassional break in momentum. A minor quibble, but one nonetheless.

If you're after emotive, soaring and different music, in a rock world increasingly populated by Emo/Screamo bands, then I highly recomment you check out Ghost Machine's Hypersensitive. Something different to reinvigorate the genre.

www.ghostmachine.net / www.myspace.com/ghostmachine1

Mendeed - "The Dead Live By Love" (Rising Records)

Just a quick review for this one. The Dead Live By Love is excellent. Blending Children Of Bodom-style melodic death metal (minus the keyboards) with more soaring, melodic and ‘cleaner’ moments, this album packs the punch of Scandanavia’s best metal acts (think the aforementioned COB and the mighty In Flames), but adds extra flavours on top, making their music conform and yet also defy pigeonholing. It sounds fresh, yet familiar. "Invigorating" would be a good word to describe how this album sounds, as well as what it does for the genre as a whole which is getting a little stale.

The fact they band hails from Glasgow and not Sweden or the US is another head-spinner: who would have thought the Scots would produce such an amazing metal band, with a sound all their own? Mixing brutality, amazing musicianship and varied vocal styles (always melodic, even when David Proctor’s screaming) Mendeed might have produced an album that would win a few Metal Album Of The Year gongs, if only it wasn’t released so early – when have the awards ever really gone to an album released in the early months of the year? Like the Oscars, it’s always to the ones people can remember the most. So, all we have to do is get them to release a reissue (or enough singles) to keep them fresh in the ever-fickle minds of the metal massive.

I've followed the band since their first EPs, and it's very refreshing to here the band growing into such a formidable force! As musicians they are almost peerless (certainly in the UK), and as a band they have clearly grown more confident in their own abilities. If these guys were from the States, you'd see them filling huge venues. Let's hope the fact their British won't hold them back from the recognition and success they so clearly deserve.

A truly awesome album, with not a single bad track, if you only buy one metal album this year, make it Mendeed's The Dead Live By Love. (It's in stores today, so there's no excuse not to!)

http://www.mendeed.co.uk/ / www.myspace.com/mendeed