Rating: RRRLabel: Nightmare Records 2013
Review by Kimmo Toivonen
I don't really know what to make of this band. This is their fifth album but the first one of theirs I've heard, so I can't compare it to their previous efforts. Not that it really matters. They've been called a "progressive metal" band by some and I won't argue with that, but yet another Dream Theater copycat they are not. Superb musicianship is displayed but not forcefed, and the lenghts of the tracks are pretty normal, the longest ones being around 7 and a half minutes. What's more, the band can write dangerously sharp hooks when they want to. Some of their choruses just jump at you when you're least expecting them... take the video track "Scars" or the album's title track for example.
Vocalist Sindre Antonsen has a singing style that's maybe a little "acquired taste", ranging from clean, melodic singing to an almost growl-like, very "manly" singing. He's got the voice but at times one feels that he's maybe trying a bit too hard. Take the chorus of the Queensrÿche-influenced "Crimson Sunset" for example - a bit less excited vocal performance would not have hurt!
An interesting album that certainly has its' merits, but could have used some more polishing and few more of those killer hooks.
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