Upon the first few bars of my first listen one thing is abundantly clear: these Danish rockers from Copenhagen know how to make an album. Their latest effort being number 3 in their stable and their first with Spinefarm, their new record label.
Formed in 2005: The melting pot of Lasse, Mark, Rasmus and Nokolaj sounds like the Offspring, Dragon Force and Slayer made love, and this band is their illegitimate love child. Already nominated for a Metal Hammer award for their second album ‘Last Night of Solace’, winners of the Rock the Nation award and currently in the running for ‘Gafa Prisen Danish Hard Rock Of The Year’ award. Quite an amazing list of achievements, with which any band would be proud. It all seems to be going in the right direction for them and with credentials like these it’s hard to argue.
The album opener ‘Refuse to Exist’ has everything you could want in a ‘here’s our band’ track. Speed fuelled thrash metal angrily shredded out onto dark and ominous down-tuned guitars. It harbours the kind of riffage that induces whiplash from some major head banging. The solos, although textured, cut through the wall of sound like a knife wielding maniac, leaving the recently assaulted fretboard as the only focal point. The technicality of the solos are sheer brilliance and would certainly impress the likes of Hernan Li, Steve Vai and even the great Joe ‘Satch’ Satriani.
The vocal delivery is always a strong point on every track with the lead man spitting his venom, reminiscent of an early Kronos or a latter day M. Shadows. The drums are thunderous and all over the place – exactly as they should be. The bass is also doing its fair share in keeping this rhythmic juggernaut on track.
The band do show their ‘pop’ moments with songs like ‘Heart of Gold’ and ‘Untouchable’, little 3-4 minute breathers to compose oneself before the next viciously delicious onslaught begins.
However, the album does hit a rare sour note with the track ‘Watch it Burn’. With its bizarre mixing of soft up-stroked metal chords and upbeat drumming, it has a very familiar nu-metal sound that we all thought had been left in the early 2000’s. They then conclude by topping the piece off with some rapping. There is a lot of profanity on this track even for my sailor mouth and it doesn’t seem to hold any purpose other than to be deliberately offensive or as cheap lyric filler. Not exactly my cup of tea but there are still enough blisteringly strong tracks on this album to keep coming back for another listen.
This band seems to be going from strength to strength and with over 130 live shows under their belt in such a short lifespan they certainly show no signs of slowing down.
MARC ANDERSON-JONES