The 6th album by the Bavarian sextet contains the same line-up as the album they released at the beginning of last year and is in a similar vein. And sadly for me Daniel Schmidle’s keyboards still feel overused, especially when it’s for electronic dance beats and effects. When they are used for harmony and extra melody however, like on the final track, they are superb and a far more welcome additional instrument.
With no fuss at all Chris Widmann blasts out a heady drum tattoo on while Matthias Kupka swaps from acerbic to clean vocals for the choruses on “Sons of the Second”, which happens to also be the first single from the album.
“Going Under” has a nice guitar undercurrent played by Vlad Doose and Udo Simon while the keyboards keep slicing through, kinda like at a fun-fair where each ride is trying to be louder than the rest.
The very thrashy guitar riff and Matthias’ screams on “Revelation” have you tapping your head, or foot, along to the drums as they break down before the leads soar.
The quick triplets played on both drums and guitars work well with the heavier vocals on “Your Last smile”, as do the clean vocals on the choruses. The more subdued keyboards and sci-fi battle sounds still leave me wondering ‘why?’ after each listen though.
Starting off as if it’s going to be a manic track “Crushing Down” quickly settles to a mellower groove where Mario Lochert’s bass keeps the tempo thumping on.
“We Wanna Party” could be an 90’s electro-pop hit, think Aqua, if it wasn’t 30 years late and containing some damned heavy guitars and aggressive vocals when not trying to sound bad hair and even worse make-up.
The electro-pop feel continues for the intro of “Infected Nightmare” but once the guitars burn that sound away the song just gets heavier and the alternating clean and screeched vocals work well as dynamic counterpoints.
A heavy doom influenced ballad “Drowning in Hate” has Matthias sounding like Ville Valo as he croons to coax you into the water, then he lets rip and the full fury of his unleashed vocals hold you under while the soothing leads keep you from struggling.
Once the buzzing keyboards are replaced by buzzing guitars on “The Beginning” they work their way steadily to the chunkier riffs of “Pathetic Me” with its sharp drum fills.
Screaming like a banshee, Matthias keeps time with Chris on “Loving Hate” as the drums slow then blast back for that extra punch in the solar plexus.
“Peace of Mind” is the perfect song to sign off with. As I said in the opening paragraph, the keyboard is played slow and strong as the gently strummed acoustic guitar bring to mind all those classic love ballads that had so many bands crossing genre appeal and making millions as fire hazards with their lighter brigades.
While I think keyboards can have their place in metal, I still believe it’s for ambience more than to be an affecting instrument, especially when it detracts from the music. But each to their own, it may work for others more than it does for me. But other than that, I can’t really fault them as the songs are catchy with more than sufficient heaviness to get most pits bouncing merrily.
6/10 – Marco Gaminara
Leave a Reply