This Greek bunch released this album digitally back in 2013 with a physical release materialising during 2014 but it seems it is getting a second push and has landed on my review pile this month. With an album already out from 2010 and this having what I deem as the second phase push, cynically one can read that as it didn’t do very well on the first release period. Purporting to be a mix of melodic death metal and metalcore this release is the epitome of modernised metal you often see on many support slots at a great number of shows I’ve attended over the years. There are hundreds of bands like this in most metallised countries and the difficulty of maintaining your profile in the cut throat metal world whilst being original is extremely difficult as bands hit the metal shoreline and break up on the crashing beach rocks of the discerning metal public and media alike.
Onto the album and “A Vicious Circle” listens exactly how you’d expect with my genre tagging, the modernised riffing is often saturated in that Swedish Gothenburg sound of melodic axe work pioneered by the likes of At The Gates and Arch Enemy. Whilst not in the realms of that level of musicianship this is a very accomplished album, detectable from the very moment that “The Final Sunlight” kicks off with its harmonised like riff. The dynamics are smooth as “Existence” fluidly follows and once again the guitar focuses your attention with its very ear friendly structuring. Vocally this is typical of the scene, core like shouts and bellows for the most part and would benefit from some cleaner sections to add variety to the songs that wouldn’t soften the overall approach to the album. “The Dive” offers a darker more sombre style on the riffing with a despondent melody and some very nice guitar embellishments and is probably the most different tune on here.
Returning to familiar territory with “Rejecting The Parasites” the band sits comfortably within the ranks of bands like Darkest Hour, Unearth and possibly the more modern In Flames material, as the tune adopts a hardcore like shouted vocal in the middle followed by a good punchy riff. If I’d heard this release about ten years ago I’d have been very pleased and played it a lot but with the scene being full of bands like this it is hard to wax lyrically in praise of the band despite this release being a very strong album overall in its chosen field. The release is available digitally extremely cheaply as is the CD from their bandcamp page and if you’ve a spare ten minutes or so to check these guys out then do so as they offer good modern metal that is better than most.
(6.5/10 Martin Harris)
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