Shortly after forming in 2006, this French band played their first game of ‘Catch The Sun’ the year after and obviously didn’t singe their fingers too badly as they are back at it again 16 years later. In the intermediate years they have had all manner of line-up changes, a short hiatus and delivered their second album ‘A Bitter End / A Brave New World’ in 2018. Fast forward to the present day as ‘We’ve Caught The Sun’ is a re-recorded version of their debut, which I have to admit is an odd idea. If they had racked up a load of albums and this had been a massive fan favourite that was being clamoured for it would make more sense. The fact is though that one has to wonder if it is a bit more of a vanity project from a band who should be concentrating on writing brand new material. That aside, it is what it is. The tracks are the same name and even the running time is close as a hair’s breadth to the original.
We are told this is melodic death metal with metalcore hints. At odds to this Metal Archives lists the band as playing thrash and power metal. The latter is certainly not what I hear, the thrash description is fair enough as the band do play like the clappers to a large extent but to for me the bad news is that the modern sound and metalcore style is quite a bit more than a hint. I looked on Bandcamp and the original is not available to listen to so I can’t compare the two. Considering that and the fact that I’m struggling to enjoy this new version, that could well be for the best.
Starting with mellow chanting we are suddenly thrust into a seething pit of galloping riffs and pounding drums on opener ‘The Never Ending Beginning.’ It’s catchy and melodic, I’ll give it that but it’s not long before the vocals turn from the more extreme snarls to clean swooping chorus parts. Lovers of recent In Flames will no doubt enjoy this but the angst ridden vocal parts littered all over the shop are not going to endear fans of the truer style of death metal in the slightest and are really likely to have them switching off rather quickly. ‘The Right To Bleed’ has a fair bit of Children Of Bodom about it and romps along nicely over its short compact running time. In fact, if you listened to this track alone it is full of melodeath bravado and keeps it all relatively real. Similarly, penultimate number ‘Into Speechlessness’ is another solid banger. However, we are back to the flip-side of the coin quickly on ‘The Blackest Day’ and the trendier, commercial etched vocals are all over it and unfortunately Amaury Durand is no Mikael Stanne when it comes to projecting emotion into things and I have to be honest this song and others on the album actually had me cringing.
I could go on and continue dissecting tracks but would be going round in circles here. While I appreciate the music, the pace and speed and the hooks of the instrumentation despite the fact it’s all rather formulaic, the vocals are the disruptive influence here and the modern metal stylings are just too much of a turn-off for my tastes. If you are looking for a gateway album to propel you into further exploration of death metal or if you simply don’t like music that is too extreme this will no doubt do you proud. Regrettably though it’s a hard pass from me.
(6/10 Pete Woods)
Leave a Reply