This album, for me, is like a “Greatest Hits” of great riffs, solos, melodies, etc from other Melodic DM Albums, which for me, is not a bad thing.
I heard this band while I was listening to the In Flames (I am a fan of old IF, not this A Sense of Purpose garbage) station on Pandora Internet radio. I heard a song (cant recall which) that sounded good, but had a clean chorus. Im only ok with clean choruses if they are done right, and In Flames, (especially lately, A Sense of Purpose Album) doesnt do them properly.
Luckily, I did not dismiss this band. I looked into this album, and have since heard it about 5 or 6 times straight thru and the standouts even more.
One thing is for sure: There is NOTHING new about this band. Its all been done before. Everything, except maybe the 3 vocalists, which I think is a great touch.
People may claim that they have stolen riffs blatantly from Iron Maiden, but really, what european metal band has NOT used the “Aces High” chorus riff?? Its a great riff!
Another thing to note is the fact that the main writer played every instrument on this album!! That is nuts and requires a lot of work and knowledge of other instruments. I play the drums, but I cannot imagine how long it would take me to be great on the guitar….
Btw, this is not Metalcore (thank goodness).
On to the music:
Positives
-Great “musicmanship”
-Written and performed (on the album)by one man O_O
- Includes Bjorn from Soilwork!
-3 Different vocalists with different styles
- Very Catchy Melodies and Riffs (although not new)
-Good solos!! (something In Flames and even Dark Tranquillity lack)
-Reminds me of what I USED to like about In Flames
-Sounds like a hybrid of In Flames+Soilwork+ even a little modern style Children of Bodom.
-Some very catchy clean choruses here
Negatives
-Nothing new here, We (Melodic Death Metal Fans) have heard it before
-A few songs are not as strong as the others
-Some songs sounds very similar (too similar?)
Standout Tracks of the top of my head (without looking at a track list)
Resurrection Code
Celestial Furnace
Last Breed (lots of “Aces High” chorus riffs here)
Process of Annihilation
Enjoy this quality stuff from Italia!