Symphony X - Paradise Lost

Best of 2007?

Damn close. I don't really know any other album that blew me away as much as Symphony X's latest outing, so I guess the title would indeed go to them. People complain that this is a departure from their style, seeing as to how this is the first Symphony X album I've ever been able to sit through in its entirety, I can safely say that this is my favorite, and I really don't care how different it is. The epic intro of Oculus Ex Inferni was strange to me, I was listening to this wondering how on earth they could possibly make this into something totally metal without descending into self indulgent wankery. Set the World on Fire quickly tore through the speakers in my car and set my ass straight. I purposely parked in the parking lot of Menard's on my way back home from Best Buy after buying this, purely so I could just sit there and listen to the whole album before I had to eject it.

Yes, that is the only album that has managed to do that to me. The Stench of Redemption got close, but this one pulled it off. Michael Romero is a fucking wizard, we all know that, and he impressed me the most on this album. Sure, the riffs are a bit more stripped down and simplistic than Divine Wings of Tragedy or something, but they have never kicked this much ass. As somebody from another site mentioned, they are one of the few bands that don't forget the "metal" part of "progressive metal". Russell Allen is highly impressive here as well, in fact, this performance has made him one of my favorite metal vocalists. Yeah, above the guy from Virgin Steele, that's how awesome. The keys have some standout solos, and the bass and drums would be phenomenal in any other band, but here they are kind of overshadowed by the sheer amazingness of Romero and Allen. That doesn't stop the intro of Domination from absolutely destroying everyone and everything.

My neck hurt after listening to this album, prog metal rarely makes me hurt myself (unless I'm eating glass to try and forget the pain my ears are experiencing (in case you haven't noticed, I'm not a huge prog fan)). Prog usually bores me. The musicians are always astounding, but rarely do I hear a song that I just want to hear over and over again until I puke. This should be a testament to how great Paradise Lost is, because I knew all of the words to Eve of Seduction after about two days of casual listening. This album is catchy and fucking furious.

Before y'all get annoyed of my constant gushing again, I'll point out the shortcomings. The second ballad, The Sacrifice, isn't all that great or interesting. I hear a lot of Dream Theater in it, which is a bad thing for the most part. At least Allen kicks ass on it, as opposed to how it would sound of LaBrie was whining all over the top of it. I feel I should also mention that the solo is breathtakingly great. But on the whole, The Sacrifice is a boring song, not bad, just boring. The first ballad, on the other hand, is astounding, so don't get the idea that I am against anything that doesn't rage along at 255 bpm. That said, Serpent's Kiss isn't as magnificent as the rest either, it seems to be the grooviest (which isn't necessarily bad, it just doesn't seem to work here).

But that's really the only bad part on the album. Even the nine minute closer remains captivating throughout the duration. Eve of Seduction has some of the cheesier/dumber romance lyrics I've ever heard, but judging by the destructive fucking speed/power/prog metal on top of them, you'd never guess what it was about. (Which reminds me, this album is pretty hard to classify. Prog metal would be an acceptable blanket genre, but it also has strong elements of both power and groove metal infused inside.) Domination has one of the coolest intros I've ever heard, the drummer has to verge on spontaneously combusting during that part with the insanely precise double kicks. Seven just oozes with symbolism (seven minutes?! seventh song?! oh my goodness!!), but the cheese factor doesn't stop it from kicking just as much ass as the rest of the record. The title track is another choice cut, despite being a beautiful piano driven tune as opposed to the rest of the balls out metal on here.

So yeah, my favorite songs would probably be Eve of Seduction, Seven, or Set the World on Fire, but there aren't any bad ones. Serpent's Kiss is only average and The Sacrifice doesn't measure up to the rest, but they aren't bad songs at all. While I'm sure I've rated or will rate other 2007 albums higher than this album's 94, the title of best of '07 still goes to Symphony X. Try it out. From what I understand, fans of older material won't dig this as much as I did, but judge it on it's own merit, not what you think it has to live up to, it becomes a much better album that way.

RATING - 94%

(side note, this is an old review, this isn't best of '07 at all) 

Stormwarrior - Stormwarrior

Tope Notche Mediocritye

Welle, whate doe we have here? Ae Germane speede metale bande withe Kai Hansen'se approvale ofe awesomenesse? Thate hase toe rule righte?

Okay, first off, the whole gimmick with adding an "e" to the end of every word is exceedingly stupid and needs to metaphorically suck out farts and die. I'm not marking down points for that, that would be retarded. It's not detrimental to the music, just really fucking annoying.

Now, superficial vent aside, let's get to the subject of the review, Stormwarrior. About twenty seconds into the first song, I proclaimed out loud "twenty bucks says they're from Germany", and I was right. The German speed metal sound is a very distinct one, and is one of the only styles that one can immediately identify the geographic location of a band upon hearing them. Frankly, I love that sound, but Stormwarrior has taken worship to the extreme. As much fun as this album is, there is not a single original note throughout the entirety of the record.

The one word that best describes Stormwarrior's self titled debut is "Deja-vu". Not one riff doesn't sound like something you heard on Walls of Jericho almost twenty years prior. Usually this is a good thing, but this is blatant, unimaginative worship on an almost Trivium-esque scale. This doesn't sound as much like a throwback to the good ol' days of 1985 as it is undoubtedly attempting to be. Instead, it sounds like a cover band, albeit a very good one. Deceiver might as well have been named "Murderer", as it's the same goddamn song. Even the vocalist sounds EXACTLY like Kai Hansen. Jens Carlsson sounds nearly identical to Hansi Kursch, so why do I lambast Thunder Axe for sounding nearly identical to Kai Hansen? Because Persuader actually accomplishes something that Stormwarrior merely attempt yet sadly fail at, writing orignal, creative, and unique songs.

As if it wasn't bad enough that this was essentially a half assed attempt at writing Walls of Jericho part II, they decided to take their unoriginality to the next level by having Kai Hansen produce the album, contribute a solo or two and some backing vocals, and even cover Heavy Metal (Is the Law) with him singing! Jesus man, I guess if you can't hide your blatant plagiarism, you might as well have the original writer endorse it eh? I really don't see what people are talking about when they say that Stormwarrior "puts an original spin on the old style". What original spin? There is none! The music (which, mind you, is what actually counts) sounds like every early/mid eighties German speed metal record sounded like. I'm sorry, but changing the lyrical subject matter from fantasy or pirates to vikings does not make one a creative individual. Stormwarrior is to Walls of Jericho and Gates to Purgatory as what The Crusade is to Master of Puppets.

Now, despite all this negativity, this isn't actually a bad album. As the title states, this is top notch mediocrity. They do nothing original, but they do it extremely well. Even though this is pretty much 50 minutes of rehashed Helloween and Running Wild riffs/melodies, it's still a fun experience the first time through. The album definitely loses it's touch after a couple spins, but some songs (Deathe by the Blade, Signe of the Warlorde) are honestly excellent songs. The production is excellent, the musicianship is great, and when you really think about it, all of the elements to a great album are there... the only lacking quality is originality.

This album was tailor made for early speed metal fans, but it's only an amazing album if you can look past the glaring unoriginality. On the whole, it's a decent record. It gets boring by the end due to a very severe lack of variety, but again, it isn't terrible. I would say that Kai would be disappointed with a band trying so hard yet failing to capture the magic that he emanates, but apparently he's so proud of this band that he made sure he blew his load all over the album. So a D+ to Stormwarrior. It's a fun record on the first spin, but that's about it. Every last song sounds like the one before it, which all incidentally sound like something we've all heard a million times before.

RATING - 68%

Stormtroopers of Death - Speak English or Die

Lemme tell ya something 'bout a porcupine's balls

They're small..... and they don't give a SHIT!

If Stormtroopers of Death has anything metal should have, it's the attitude. It's kind of a punk rock attitude mixed almost 50/50 with the thrash metal ideals of the time (beer + fast + more beer = thrashTASTIC!). And with that fuck-the-world mentality flowing through the veins of an early incarnation of Anthrax, S.O.D. was born. From what I understand, Speak English or Die ranks as one of the first crossover thrash records ever recorded, so it obviously has history on it's side, but unfortunately the tendency to have fun gets in the way of the actual songwriting.

Before I get lambasted for bitching about a band trying to have fun, I'd like to point out that no matter what, the music is always the most important part. If the music is fun, that's great, but if it comes off as little more than a poorly written joke, it gets in the way of the enjoyment of the album. Children of Bodom is a prime offender of this, constantly covering non metal songs purely for laughs, not because they might actually sound good or show influence or anything, purely for shiggles. I really don't care if it was the band's intention to just make a stupidly fun record, because if I were to rate music based on if it sounds like what the band wanted it to sound like, everything would have a perfect score! So musically, this album earns exemplary marks for a few excellent thrashers, but far too much goofing off for it's own good.

Songs like Chromatic Death, Speak English or Die, Kill Yourself, and Sargent D and the S.O.D. are thrash monsters worthy of anybody's ears, and if the entire record was as focused musically as these few, it'd be a near perfect album. Unfortunately, the band takes their humorous lyrical approach a bit too seriously at times and churn out worthless time wasters like Hey Gordy!, What's that Noise?, Diamonds and Rust (Extended Version), and Anti Procrastination Song. I'll admit, I think The Ballad of Jimi Hendrix is funny as hell, but it's a complete waste otherwise. The band can't seem if they are in the studio for some lighthearted fun or thrashing listeners' balls off. Some songs (Milk, Pre Menstrual Princess Blues, Speak English or Die) actually do a really good job of intertwining the goofy lyrics and the intense music. When they get it right, they really get it right. Scott Ian riffs just as well as he did with Anthrax at the time, Charlie Benante is still one of my favorite drummers of all time, Dan Lilker is solid as usual, and Billy Milano has a perfect crossover shout. The main reason the album doesn't score higher is because of the wasteful throwaways that litter an otherwise intense and high energy thrash record.

But, as I previously said, this album does fulfill the purpose it sets out to do, and that is make a record that is not only intense, but also a lot of fun. I know I said I shouldn't base a score of something like that, but in the end, the album is highly enjoyable, which is all that really matters, so I lied, the album earns a B+ on the the whole. The joke songs are indeed annoying and flow breaking, but there are a lot less than I may have made it seem. On the whole, it's a fun album, but don't go in looking for anything thought provoking.

FIST BANGING MANIA!

 RATING - 87%

Starseed - Cosmic Conspiracy

Surprise from left field!

This band came as a total surprise to me. A friend of mine told me about them, and thusly I checked them out, because he normally has a really good taste in metal. Long story short, he's steered me wrong before, but when he's right... holy FUCK is he right.

What sets Starseed apart from other death metal bands from around the world? For me, it is the sci-fi element. Is it a gimmick? No, or at least it never comes off as one. It never gets overblown or cheesy. The keys are always tasteful and well used, and they actually pull off some really cool melodies, a rarity for death metal. The drumming is tight and the riffs are competent. Vocally, they aren't anything special, but it isn't annoying, so that's definitely a plus.

But unfortunately, when one breaks down the only release from these German death metallers, it is, at it's core, very basic. The blast beats are typical, the riffs don't stand out, the vocals may not be annoying, but they are kind of pedestrian. One of the only aspects that I find to be astounding are the melodies. If there is one thing they do very well, it is memorable melodies. The keys and lead guitar work together seamlessly and create some hauntingly beautiful passages in otherwise crushing death metal riff monsters (The Forlorn and Survival of Zeta Reticuli are good examples of what I mean). I might be sending mixed messages, so let me clarify a bit: there are a multitude of riffs, but very few stand out as amazing, most are good or above average, but rarely are they exhilarating.

This album confuses me a bit, because I'm not sure if it's supposed to be considered a full length. It is only six songs, and is just shy of twenty minutes long, yet it somehow managed to be considered a full length on the site. Go figure. Anyways, I think the fact that this is such a short record actually worked to its advantage. I obviously like it, but it is a very basic album once you work past the sense of melody. The length prevents it from growing stale or wearing out its welcome, which is good, because I'd hate to ever have to call this band mediocre.

Well, this is a short album, so this is obviously going to be a short review. All of the songs are great, but would amount to a very average death metal release once you strip away the sci-fi keys and melodies. Yet somehow, they manage to maintain my interest and keep me entertained. You know, now that I think about it, they kind of have that mystical quality I mention so frequently in my Running Wild reviews. They may not be technically impressive, they manage to captivate you and make you want more. It really is a shame this band never did anything other than Cosmic Conspiracy, because despite my complaints of not being terribly innovative despite the excellent leads, melodies, and use of keys, this is actually top notch death metal. The vocals leave a bit to be desired and the drumming is pretty standard, but everything else manages to work together and make a truly interesting release. An A- to Starseed's only release, and one of the better surprises I've been shown thus far in 2008. Recommended.

RATING - 90%

Spearhead - Deathless Steel Command

Solid black/death with the world's worst snare

Spearhead's Deathless Steel Command doesn't break any new ground. It sits probably in the 70s percentile in the spectrum of metal ass kicking, it plays the same riffs we've been hearing for years, and would generally be discarded as a decent but uninteresting band by me. Yet there is something at work here that grabs my attention. I don't know what it is, but there is something underneath the surface that grabs me by the balls and bites. Apart from a few scattered melodic sections like the intro to "Dominion", the record consists of mainly non stop blasting with solid black/death riffs.

The main problem with Deathless Steel Command may also be the thing that helps accentuate the greatness... and that is the snare. Whatever fucktard set up the drums needs to be caned, because the blast beats sound absolutely ridiculous when the poppity tin snare gets pushed to the forefront and smashed repeatedly. When it comes to drums, the toms are supposed to have tones, the snare should not. The snare drum should be pure percussion and nothing more. When your main beat keeper plays a distinguished note with every hit, you are just asking for annoyance and distraction. It usually sounds bad but not irritating, that is until a blast comes along and it starts getting hit really fast, then it becomes impossible to ignore. But I have found that the fact that I dwell on this actually caused me to become more aware of the music surrounding it. I think to myself "Christ on a cracker, this sounds terrible. This totally obscures the otherwise cool music", and then I start to pay extra attention to the music to see exactly what I'm missing. This strange phenomenon lead me to appreciate the black metal fury underneath much more. I understand that crystal clear production doesn't really get along with black metal, but I'm also sure it wouldn't've killed them to try and clean up that fucking "POP" noise scattered throughout.

I've mentioned that these riffs aren't anything new, but that doesn't stop them from ruthlessly killing everything in front of them. Spearhead is a part of the group consisting of Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch, and Grave Digger (among many others), in where they don't really do anything that they or other bands haven't done before and better, but they do it so damn well that it doesn't matter in the slightest. There's actually a good degree of variation on display as well. Every song is pure, fiery black metal with an added death metal flair, but the drums aren't content to just blast and double bass throughout the whole thing, and change it up quite a few times to add a nice pace change here and there ("Violated Purity" and "The Glorious Dead" do this well). The leads, as showcased in nearly every song, are fantastic as well. Most of them are short, but they shred quickly and get the job done. Most of the songs themselves follow the same idea, being short but to-the-point and incredibly effective.

Overall, the shit-tacular drum sound lowered the score quite a bit, and the short running length leaves the listener unsatisfied. Sure, they shouldn't drag an album out if they don't have enough material, but it just feels incomplete... like they couldn't get all of their ideas cemented down before recording started. The fact of the matter is that it isn't a very large loss, as the band's next outing will blow this out of the water in absolutely every category. So even though I like this, I actually wouldn't recommend it purely for the fact that Spearhead has done much better, and not hearing this won't actually harm your opinion. Fans of fast, powerful black/death metal should keep an eye out for this band, as I predict bright things in their future.

RATING - 72%

Soulthreat - Storm of Time

Surprisingly great, keep an eye on this man

Something about Soulthreat’s Storm of Time just strikes me. Despite some rather rough production and at times nearly inaudible MIDI drumming, the songwriting manages to sweep me up into the epic soundscapes of Pius Grave’s one-man, atmospheric/melodic death metal project. I know that this is a terrible comparison, but I can’t help but think of Arghoslent when I hear this. Keep in mind that Arghoslent and Soulthreat sound absolutely nothing alike, and that Soulthreat’s approach is much less straightforward and prefers to use uplifting melodies combined with furious riffing as opposed to awkward, overtly bouncy riffs to get the point across. I draw the comparison mainly due to the fact that I can feel a strong influence from traditional heavy metal in the songs. Some of the riffs in "Painful Wounds" (my personal favorite of the album) are damn near Power Metal. The lyrics are also diverse and personal, ranging from religion ("Mental Suicide"), to depression ("Painful Wounds", "Lasting Memories"), to the concept of time itself ("Storm of Time").

But don’t let the tag of "melodic death metal" fool you, this isn’t anything like the legions of In Flames clones. Soulthreat really have nailed a sound that helps set them apart. The abundance of melody never sounds tacked on and always fits with the music coherently. The one thing that I just can’t help but complain about is the production. It’s lo-fi, which isn’t a big deal at all (in fact, it adds a lot to many recordings), but Pius Grave made a strange decision to bury the drums under the wall of guitars. He only covers the vocal and string duties, that’s fine. The drums are programmed, again, not a problem. But I don’t quite understand why they are so unnecessarily quiet. What this does is rob the music of some of the intensity that I know it has the potential to possess. Thankfully, the superb songwriting and strong sense of melody keep the compositions interesting enough for it to not become a problem. Overall, Storm of Time is a strong release from a very promising project, and worth the time of any melodic death metal fan.

RATING - 86%



Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Skyclad - Vintage Whine

Why can they never make a FULL album of greatness?

I love Skyclad, it's a scientific fact. The originators of folk metal, the only "pure" folk metal band I've ever heard, Walkyier's intelligent wit and sarcastic bark, catchiness on par with AIDS, what's not to like? Well, there is one problem with Skyclad, they have never, EVER made an album that is wonderful from start to finish. Every last record they have ever produced has had AT LEAST two or three plodding throwaways. It baffles me how this band can write songs like Cardboard City and Civil War Dance, and yet on the very same album have The One Piece Puzzle and Land of the Rising Slum. I just don't get it. They have written some of the best songs metal has ever seen, but at the same time some really boring shit that ALWAYS seems to sneak into the record. Sorry to keep capitalizing so many words, but I must emphasize how they've never managed a single amazing record... always "Half perfect, half utter piss".

That said, Vintage Whine is one of my favorite Skyclad releases because the songs that are good, are fucking amazing. That's actually how it is with their entire discography, but I guess my personal favorites are all on this one. Really, it all comes to personal taste with Skyclad.

Vintage Whine begins with Kiss my Sweet Brass, a classic Walkyier approved pun that most listeners are already used to. New listeners might be put off the the rampant puns throughout the discography, but he usually applies them quite well when it comes to actually integrating them into the songs. Anyways, the intro is over quickly, which is good because I can't see it being interesting for more than half a minute, which leads us to the title track, and what may be my favorite Skyclad song. It's mid paced, but holy fuck is this song catchy. I mean it, it's catchy on a scale that only the Bubonic Plague can match. It also sports one of the catchiest choruses in the history of man, right next to Running Wild's White Masque or Iron Maiden's Run to the Hills. I found myself singing it for well over three months, no exaggeration. On With Their Heads!, The Silver Cloud's Dark Lining, Little Miss Take, and Something to Cling to are all speedy and catchy monsters that really make the album great. The first three tracks are really some of the best in heavy metal history, I'm willing to go that far. The Silver Cloud's Dark Lining is a great place to start if you are just discovering Skyclad. It was the first song I heard and it made me a fan instantly.

But if you look at the track listing, you may realize I completely skipped over tracks four through eight. That is because that is where the obligatory "this album is rocking too hard, we better drag it down a bit" section is. You'll notice that most of their albums work this way. There always a section of three or four songs in the middle or end that just drag the entire album down. Plodding riffs, boring drums, not catchy or memorable, and overlong. Even if it's a normal song length of about four or five minutes, it feels like much longer. They're never bad songs per se, but compared to the rest of the album, they just.... suck. A Well Beside the River isn't bad, but it's plodding and just goes on and on and on and on. It's the heaviest song on the album, but it's just boring. No Strings Attached is a straight up folk tune ala the days of Irrational Anthems, and I don't like it one bit. Bury Me sounds like it will bring the album back up to speed, but never manages it. It sounds similar to the title track, but it is severely missing the magic on the first one. Not to mention the chorus is boring as hell. And Cancer of the Heart is TOO LONG. It's only about five and a half minutes, but there's about two minutes worth of ideas. Thankfully, it is at least catchy in parts, something the last three songs missed.

Little Miss Take is SUCH a breath of fresh air after the last pool of stagnation. The album can best be described as the Grand Canyon. It's so high up, it's awesome... but then there is a very sudden dip, in fact a cliff, leading to a deep valley. You trudge across the valley floor, doing your best to stitch up your wounds from the fall as you cross. Then suddenly, you're at the other end, you're high up again, and all is right with the world. There is such a sudden dip in quality on this album it's staggering. I chose to review this album above all of the others because it starts the highest up, and almost reaches the center of the earth in the middle.

An album with a ton of potential. Tracks 2, 3, 4, 9, and 10 are all essential listening (I didn't include the intro/outro in my rating, or else it would be a tidbit higher, unfortunately they don't feel like full songs, so no rating). This could be one of the best albums ever.....

RATING - 77%

Six Feet Under - Commandment

One of the most God awful pieces of shit ever

Jesus fuck mothering tit spray! This band has fans? Of all the world's mysteries, that is the one I would most like explained. I just don't get it.... I can liken it to the Manson family. Who in their right mind listens to this on their own free will? I won't lie, I haven't heard any other Six Feet Under prior to this release, but you can't fucking pay me to try anything else by this bland pile of anus.

I'll start this off with the positive, Thou Shalt Kill actually has a pretty cool riff here and there, and the same can be said about Zombie Executioner or Resurrection of the Rotten, but that's it. The entire five points come from those three or four riffs. The rest of the record is boring, monotonous, tedious, uninspired, and just unequivocally bad. There is no intensity, no fire, no ambition, it's just a plodding exercise in not headbutting a sidewalk. Chris Barnes' vocals are about as good as a piss and broccoli soup with sweat broth. They never ever change, which isn't a necessity, but when you have as bad of a voice as Barnes or the guy from Meshuggah, the very least you can do is change it up every once in a while before people start wanting to pry your eyes out with a salad fork. Listen to when he tries to do some higher pitched stuff, it sounds like one of the Thundercats licked it's nuts a few too many times and now has to hock up a monstrous hairball. It's fucking terrible, I've heard better flatulence than this "legend's" half assed croaking.

And for the music? Plodding, boring, uninspired, just very dull. The most extreme example off the top of my head would be the first realization after reaching track five, Bled to Death. Didn't I just hear that shit?! It's the exact fucking riff as the opening track! They can't even scrounge up enough ideas to go literally fifteen minutes without reusing a previous hackneyed "idea". And the worst part? It's not even a good riff to start with! Nothing intrigues me about this disgusting album musically. It's always midpaced and seems afraid to stray away from the same six chords used throughout the album. I understand that the intention with Six Feet Under was to make death metal that wasn't reliant on speed and blast beats, but this is just really bad. You can't shit on a raccoon and hurl it on a canvas and reply "well it's SUPPOSED to look bad" when somebody points out that it fucking sucks as art.

The only redeeming quality about this auditory thumb screw torture would be the fact that no songs are over four minutes long, which means the pain is over quickly. I honestly don't know what's worse about it, the uninspired, plodding riffage or Chris Barnes' atrocious garble. It's like taking a Vietnamese POW and forcing him to choose between being sodomized by a cactus or being nipple clamped to death.

In short (as I can't stand to listen to this festering turd any longer than necessary), this is almost the nadir of musical... well everything. The songs are all boring, every riff and drum beat sounds uninspired, the vocals are monotonous, and the album on the whole is about as much fun as watching your best friend suck off your dad. Avoid this horrendously offending pile of offal at all costs. Honestly, you'll have a more enjoyable experience gargling a pint of nut sweat.

RATING - 5%

Sinergy - Suicide by my Side

Very hit or miss

See, this is another album that I love, but when I'm forced to sit back and think about it, it's actually pretty bland. Songs like the title track, Spit on Your Grave, or Shadow Island are all cool and original songs, but the rest, while still great, really lack substance. When they get it right, holy shit they get it right. When they don't, it's not bad, but the riffs sound very generic or uninspired, yet it still comes off as competent and 100% metal.

Kimberly Goss... well, I'll admit, she's none too bright when it comes to the issues she sings about. She attempted suicide sometime before the album came out, so one could tell that there was obviously going to be some heartfelt sorrow poured forth on this release. You ever seen the interview that prefaces the video to the title track? "People do it every day, it's not a big deal. I think I would try again if I had a chance.... I KNOW I would do it again.". She speaks playfully and trivially of a subject as serious as suicide. I don't know, that makes her come off as kind of thickheaded and puts a slightly different spin on the lyrics. Instead of the heartfelt outpourings of a soul on the brink, it seems more like she doesn't actually care and instead writes about it because it's "cool". One thing that she does right though, is her voice. My god this woman has some pipes. She isn't operatic like Nightwish, nor does she outright growl like Arch Enemy, but she has a very raw and powerful scream. It's been compared to Doro Pesch, and while it's not perfect, it's pretty damn close. Back in the days of Warlock when she would just belt out her vocals, that's what Goss does. She actually SOUNDS anguished, and I'm sure she was, but like I said, the lyrics started to seem a bit forced/hokey after you learn a bit more about her.

Musically, the band contains Alexi Laiho, fresh off the release of Follow the Reaper, one of my favorite albums ever. With a guitar dreamteam of Laiho and Roope Latvala (a "dream team" we would later learn actually wasn't too good), and the bassist from Tarot and Nightwish, you'd have to be pretty naive about metal to think the musicianship wouldn't be phenomenal. Laiho and Latvala rip some excellent solos throughout the duration of the record, and the music as a whole sounds like a transition between Follow the Reaper and Hate Crew Deathroll sans keyboards. It's very fast, there are some neoclassical elements (although not too many), and there is a heavy focus on melody, and yet they keep it heavy. It's hard to explain if you aren't familiar with Children of Bodom.

So musically and vocally, this band is great. Why the so-so score? Because for what they have in virtuosity and capability, they lack equally in the songwriting department. While no songs flat out suck, many of them aren't very memorable, and the impressiveness wears off after a few spins. And what's strange, is that the simplest song is actually one of my favorites, Written in Stone. Goss is at the top of her game here, and while the riffs aren't as impressive as some of the other tracks, the entire band manages to blend all of the qualities that are generally strewn about into one cohesive and excellent song. Spit on Your Grave and Suicide by my Side on the other hand, are equally amazing, but the riffs, melodies, and hooks are all creative and memorable. Add that on top of the fact that the vocal melodies will get stuck in your head and you'll find yourself humming most of the interludes. Shadow Island is notable for the vocal duet between Laiho and Goss, but is otherwise unspectacular. It's got a nice main riff, it sounds like it's in the major key, which is bizarre sounding in such an otherwise dreary and sullen record, but it's a welcome change.

Songs like Violated, Me, Myself, My Enemy, and Passage to the Fourth World kind of fall flat in the memorability department. I'd also like to point out the intro to Violated. Why the hell do bands do that? The whole compressed first few bars idea is really dumb and adds nothing but annoyance to the songs. The headache is multiplied here by the fact that the only standout drum part on the whole album just got needlessly drowned out for some arbitrary reason. The Sin Trade and Nowhere for No One have riffs that sound like a beginner just doodling around for the most part. They're like, three notes, and the former's just ascends a semitone each measure and adds a very basic descending scale to the end of it. Boooooring. It's really frustrating because the band obviously has a ton of potential, but half assed, uninspired riffs like that are just insulting, especially coming from Alexi Laiho at this point in his career.

The closing track, Remembrance, is a completely useless piano outro that is mixed so low you can only hear a few parts of it anyway. It sounds decent after the explosive title track, but is otherwise a complete throwaway. It was a nice gesture that Goss added it to the album (it's a tribute to 9/11 victims), but it really holds no place in this album, and unfortunately knocks the album down a peg.

In the end, Sinergy's latest (and at the rate it's taking for them to release Sins of the Past, last) album earns a very mediocre grade. It's an average record with only a few stinkers and a couple classics. Check out Spit on Your Grave, Written in Stone, and Suicide by my Side, as those tracks completely slay. The others on the other hand range from cool to below average. It's a very middle of the road release. Not essential, but recommended to middle era Bodom fans.

RATING - 75%

Signs of Decay - Intoxiggedon

Ferocious, a nice hearkening to times passed

While Indiana's Signs of Decay may not be the most original band to grace my speakers, their brand of death/thrash metal works great and carries a welcome old school vibe.

The first thing many people would notice about this band would be the vocals, which sound almost identical to The Great Southern Trendkill era Phil Anselmo. I know it's frowned upon on this site, but I happen to like Pantera, and if it wasn't for them, I'd never have delved further into heavy metal as a genre. So maybe I like the voice purely for the nostalgia, but I think it actually works really well over the pounding double bass and death/thrash riffs. For their first demo, it's actually produced extremely well. The monstrous low end adds a great rumble to the crushing fast paced riffs found throughout the all too short duration.

If I have any complaint, it'd be that Shadow Within goes on a tad too long, the re intro wasn't needed and seemed to just artificially lengthen the track. Also, the lyrics are pretty juvenile, but that's nothing to take points off for (unless it's cripplingly stupid like Into Eternity or something). Everything else works really well to me. I can't really gab off too long about a ten minute demo, so I'll wrap it up quickly. The vocals are (at least to my ears) reminiscent of mid nineties Phil Anselmo, the drums are nothing spectacular, but they never seem out of time or tedious, so that's a plus. The riffs are catchy for the most part and there are enough to keep one interested throughout the duration of the record. Not recommended to people who despise any minuscule semblance to Pantera, but recommended to pretty much anybody else. Honestly, the vocals are really the only Pantera-esque aspect, the rest is pure death/thrash intensity.

RATING - 88%