After a 6 year hiatus Mikael Sandorf is back with a completely new line-up to resurrect The Duskfall and release their first album in 7 years. Having never listened to the Swedish outfit’s earlier material I can’t comment as to whether they are back on form or have a completely new sound.
The fast tremolo pic
After a 6 year hiatus Mikael Sandorf is back with a completely new line-up to resurrect The Duskfall and release their first album in 7 years. Having never listened to the Swedish outfit’s earlier material I can’t comment as to whether they are back on form or have a completely new sound.
The fast tremolo picking on Mikael Sandorf and Ronny Edlund’s guitars give “To The Pigs” a little black metal element that Magnus Klavborn’s shouted vocals don’t, as they are far too audible and not raspy enough, and more akin to melodic death/thrash which “Farewell” shows perfectly with Fredrik Andersson’s triplets on the kick drum as the guitar riffs get heavy then pull back to let the vocals power on through.
The vocals hit a pitch that could easily bring tears to your eyes as “I Can Kill You” drives on towards the twin leads near its conclusion.
The galloping guitars on “Where The Tree Stands Dead” are accented by the gallops on the bass by Jonatan Storm as they thump along.
“We The Freaks” sounds a little like Lennie Kravitz at first, but once Magnus starts singing with a clear and emotive voice, the guitar sound gets a little heavier, but it’s still one of the mellower tracks on the album, as is “Endgame”, even though the vocals are back to their screechy raspier norm for the verses.
A nice chunky guitar sound littered with squeals settles into a steady rhythm for “Hate For Your God” before flowing into winding leads and chugging along contently.
The short choppy riff has Fredrik Andersson playing a quick tempo on “The Charade” to keep up and give it a nice lively feel.
While “Burn Your Ghosts” has a broodier feel with a far more aggressive guitar sound and more emphatic drumming that pummels rather than brightens the mood.
There’s a strange dancey vibe to “Travesty”, or the main riff just sounds like a song I may have heard on the radio some time.
Final track “We Bleed” bounces between melodic and slightly whinier vocals, while the music has a great melodic death metal quality to it.
Once you get past the vocals and are able to enjoy the album as a whole it is actually pretty good as they have a couple different styles thrown in there, and you may enjoy some more than others.
(7/10 Marco Gaminara)
https://www.facebook.com/TheDuskfallSweden
Leave a Reply