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Archives for June 23, 2008

Sevendust – Alpha

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‘Alpha’ is the sixth studio album from Sevendust, it was recorded in late 2006 and finally saw its official UK release in December 2007 complete with two previously unavailable bonus tracks. The album features a total of 14 tracks, it clocks in at just over 51 minutes in length and as hard as the band tries here the music just always sounds exactly the same. The bands music takes influence from the genre of hip-hop and this whole album sounds to be stuck in some sort of time warp; ‘Alpha’ could easily have been released at the height of nu-metal popularity in the mid-90s, it wasn’t though and as an album of 2007 it all just sounds incredibly dated.

This ‘Alpha’ album easily could have been released by Slipknot, the vocal performance here bears more than just a slight resemblance to that of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor; any Slipknot fan will however inform you that this is an incredibly poor imitation album from Sevendust. The band has been around now since 1992, spent a year on the Roadrunner Records label between the years of 2005 and 2006 and does absolutely nothing here to distinguish itself from any of the other rubbish that riddles the Roadrunner record label. This is an incredibly generic nu-metal album from Sevendust, the band does nothing here to separate itself from the crowd and instead the music created here is incredibly unoriginal and never does the sound surprise.

From first track ‘Deathstar’ through to closer ‘Abuse Me’ the bands music fails to make any sort of impression here, the album drones on and always the album lacks spark. I was once a huge fan of the whole nu-metal movement, that was many years ago now however and even back then I’m sure I’d have turned my nose up at this one. Even by nu-metal standards this album is not very good; the guitar riffs are incredibly formulaic, it’s as if the band read some sort of nu-metal manual here and set out to include every cliché possible on this album. As I’ve said before; the vocals copy Slipknot, and the instrumental performance also offers nothing that has not been done to death before. The band progresses its way through many a power riff here, the music attempts to offer alternative but all it ever provides is musical monotony.

If the band had released this album in the mid-90s then I’m sure that it would have wrongly shifted many a copy; it’s not very good at all though and is in fact a completely unoriginal album of nu-metal nonsense. From a band that has now released seven studio albums I was really expecting a lot more, the lack of imagination shown here really is incredibly disappointing and I’m sure that this band could have come up with a lot more had they just tried a little bit harder. Nu-metal is no longer cool, this sort of sound has for a long while now not been popular, and even if it was then a lot more would be expected of an album than this. ‘Alpha’ is a definite album to avoid, as much as this band wants to be Slipknot it’s not and this truly is a droning bore of an album from Sevendust.

Label: Asylum Records
Release Date: December 17th 2007

Rating:
Review Star

Moonspell – Under Satanae

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‘Under Satanae’ is the eighth studio album from Moonspell, a dark metal band from Portugal. The band started out life under the name of Morbid God in 1989; in 1992 the name was changed to Moonspell however and in 1995 the band released its first album under the title of ‘Wolfheart’. ‘Under Satanae’ sees the band revisit early material, rerecord old tracks from the 1993 Demo ‘Anno Satanae’, tracks from first EP ‘Under the Moonspell’ which was released in 1994, and the final track on this album is actually a rerecording of ‘Serpent Angel’ which takes the band back to its days under the Morbid God moniker; it was the first track that the band ever recorded and is now over 15 years old.

For die-hard Moonspell fans this is an absolutely vital album to add to the collection, the band here records rarities from releases of old and although its not the best album in the world it still provides for an entertaining 50 minutes of music. There are ten tracks here, with every one of these the band shows off its fine talent for recording fine dark metal and although the final track on the release is now over 15 years old it certainly doesn’t sound it. ‘Serpent Angel’ still sounds as fresh as ever, the track is well constructed and comes complete with some frantic guitar work, furious drumbeats, and super vocal tone also. The vocals are dark and mysterious, powerfully put across and always there is a great deal of emotion in the vocal performance. The band means business here, the music is dark and the energy here runs incredibly deep.

The first six tracks of this album explore the dark metal finesse of the bands ‘Under the Moonspell’ EP, an absolute classic of a dark metal release and one that is held in incredibly high regard by many. Quite why the band saw it fit to rerecord the tracks I’m not too sure, the music is certainly interesting however and although rather unnecessary its quite nice to hear the bands take on the music 13 years after the EPs original release.

As the tracks here are taken from three different releases of the band the album therefore doesn’t run entirely smoothly, it works quite well though and although the music doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre of dark metal; the fact of the matter is that all of these tracks are over a decade old and since then there have obviously been a vast array of imitators and a great deal of progression also within the genre. Moonspell is an excellent band at what it does, the genre has very much moved on but the band is here proud to revisit its roots and inject new life into former classics and previous successes.

‘Under Satanae’ is an interesting album, if you’re not already a fan of dark metal then this will not be the one to change your mind about the genre but for fans of the sound it’s still an album that is really quite worthwhile adding to your collection. For all fans of Moonspell this album is most definitely worth investing in, the band revisits old material and here attempts to better what it already recorded and released over a decade ago. Are the rerecordings better than the originals? Probably not, it’s still interesting to hear them however and this album is therefore one that I would highly recommend to all fans of the genre of dark metal.

Label: SPV/Steamhammer
Release Date: October 15th 2007

Rating:
Review StarReview StarReview Star