During my first listen I was struck by how much this reminded me a little of early In Flames/Dark Tranquillity. They have all the energy and enthusiasm that you’d expect from a band riding high on their current success. This German sestet has been releasing music since 2000 with ‘YOU!’ being their sixth release, fifth studio album.
Opening track “Mindfuck” builds slowly on keyboard, then an explosion of instruments take place and the song begins for real. Matthias Kupka’s vocals alternate between harmonious clean and angrily shouted to complement the lyrics and frantic guitar riffs while keeping with the keyboard harmonies.
Vlad Doose and Udo Simon play some great choppy riffs and powerful leads on “Force United” which shall probably go down just as well as the appropriately named next track “Moshpit”, which other than the overuse of keyboards is past and has Chris “The Machine” Widmann blasting away on the drums for most of it.
Daniel Schmidle’s synth on “Feeling Inside” combined with Matt’s clean vocals actually gives the song a H.I.M. like quality, but thankfully the heavier side of the song does carry it through.
I don’t get to use term oxymoron often in reviews but a chance like this couldn’t be passed up so with the tile being “Liar’s Truth” and the stop go effect employed on the music, the use is justified.
“Breathless” masquerades as a soppy love song with clean vocals, low key guitar chugging in the background and keyboards being prominent, but once the guitars get unleashed everything picks up different tone, albeit briefly.
A single line from an old nursery rhyme I remember for when I was a kid is used in “rEvolution”, but Alan Moore used far more of it in 1 of his comics and in better context, maybe they could’ve brought in oranges and lemons for a good macabre measure.
Mario Lockert plays some boomy triplets on the title track “You”, accompanying the fast paced drums, while “Lean on Words” is far more ballad-like and sombre, reliant on the melodies rather than the aggression in the same way other tracks are.
Building and crashing is a prominent feature in “Regret”, and in the musical dynamic of the song too.
I think the catchy melody in “Back from the Grave” makes it almost sound pop rock, but the leads are played at a blistering pace over slow keyboards and vocals which could be fall into power ballad territory.
The album ends on the aptly entitled “Say Goodbye” with its bittersweet, another oxymoron, rise and fall of guitars and vocals to convey the emotions of losing someone close.
A good album that is far more uplifting than it appears at first, as like an onion more and more layers are revealed the more attention to pay to the little details in each song. It has its good thrashy numbers, peppered with slightly slower more melodic numbers which still retain enough heaviness in their guitars to keep everyone happy.
(6/10 Marco Gaminara)
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