The Rest In Pieces…

After a long conversation with IronEagle last night I’ve decided to revamp (and slim down) my reviews of the majority of albums. As to be quite honest they get dull to write (and I’m sure) dull to read. From now on any rants will be directed away from Reverse Current and onto Exit Ghost which has undergone something of a facelift itself recently. So from now on instead of spending the best part of 500 words explaining my thoughts on an album you’ll get about 4 or 5 sentences and a score. On average about 3 albums per post but hopefully this will leave me with time to be more ‘creative’.

Demonica – Demonstrous

Label: Massacre

When a band boasts former members of Forbidden and Mercyful Fate (you know, those two bands that influenced Metallica but were no where near as big). You can pretty much place bets on what you going to get, that is straight forward thrash metal. A few years back there was talk of the ‘thrash revival’ it never actually went away, it’s just that the mainstream metal media stopped paying any attention to thrash to focus on Limp Bizkit and Disturbed. I have something of an old time affection for thrash, its hugely enjoyable and is perhaps the least pretentious of all metal styles. As such songs like ‘Ghost Hunt’ just make me want to get down and mosh like its… um…2006 (cause that’s when I was real into thrash like).

7/10

Voices Of Destiny – From The Ashes

Label: Massacre

What continually amazes me is that genres that are largely ignored by the mainstream media and considered ‘dead’ still produce an endless stream of new bands. I realise there are exceptions to this rule but you see my point. I never really got the whole Goth/ Symphonic thing myself, but it seems to have a habit of surviving regardless of what the rest of the world is doing. I do however have a great deal of respect for Voices Of Destiny for producing what is actually a very accomplished debut record even if it lacks any originality or longevity. At the end of the day, there will remain a dedicated fan base of make-up wearing teenagers who will love this. Nothing special, but not terrible.

5/10

Mortemia – Misere Mortem

Label: Napalm

Despite everything that I said above about my disdain for ‘Gothic Metal’ I rather enjoyed listening to both that album and to this one. I wouldn’t out of choice but it’s not as though I’m having to tie my hands down to prevent myself from ripping my ears off the side of my head. Yes it generic, yes it’s unoriginal but to be quite honest, it’s actually comforting to know that some people still feel that they can compose the music they love without a care in the world. I admit I haven’t said much about the music itself, but there’s not much point if I’m honest as it’s unlikely to have any real bearing on whether or not you’ll like this. This album will appeal to fans of all things symphonic and generally ‘epic’.  Middle of the road, gothic metal.

5/10

Anima – Enter The Killzone

Label: Metal Blade

Deathcore has become the latest genre that it’s cool to hate. With the success of band’s such as Whitechapel and All Shall Perish the haters got going. Anima are certainly very tightly knit as musicians and play with a high degree of precision and technical prowess that is undeniable. But what their peers have over them is the extra edge, be it the stronger death metal influence or the minute (but nonetheless noticeable) greater technical ability. In that way Anima are certainly good, but along with 95% of other metal artists they lack the ability to really stand out in the crowd. As brutal as the next and just as heavy Anima are certainly worth a listen but I’d still take Whitechapel any day.

6/10

So there you go, four albums, one post. Work for you or not? Let me know what you think. I realise that I may have seemed to be having a dig at certainly 3 out of the 4 and that I risk coming across as simply moaning for the sake of it. What I’ve tried to do is give you different angle to what you’d get on the majority of other reviews, all criticism is subjective so why not be open about it?

Mr Bogle