Title: SEVERENTH - The Age of Paranoia
Description: SEVERENTH The Age of Paranoia
Description: SEVERENTH The Age of Paranoia
metal4life - May 4, 2009 08:27 AM (GMT)
SEVERENTH
The Age of Paranoia
Ant Hill 2009
Young UK metal bands always have my deathcore alarm bells ringing very loudly. You see I have this particular aversion to bands that use melodic death as a base whilst screaming and ranting over the top about how the world sucks etc. I also pretty much hate chuggy core breakdowns as they have been done to absolute death by every band that's heard a Killswitch Engage record and let's face it that's near enough every young metal band in existence.
So Severenth from North Wales, it's up to you to make this cynical old school metal fan eat his words be delivering a kick ass record. These young boys actually have little in common with the core brigade and more in common with Nu-Metal to my amazement! I though Nu-Metal was supposed to be dead? Anyway Severenth peddle some kind of melodic death slash nu-metalcore hybrid with quite cool melodic quasi-thrash riffs. The band reminds me of the thrashing parts of Mudvayne quite a bit whilst jamming with ethno nu metal troops Ill Nino. I also hear a few Annihilator style melodic riffs which are quite pleasing on these ears. If they had used more of these rather than the nu-metal chug riffs then they would have more success in my opinion.
The vocals are raspy yet clear and not infused with core screaming thankfully. Their attempt at melodic vocals however ends in failure pretty much, sounding very forced and not good at all. Just stick to the aggressive or learn to sing properly like David Draiman. This type of modern metal is mostly frowned upon by old schoolers as expected. It lacks the type of melody we need to keep us interested for an album's length. Songs start to sound the same as the album progresses and riffs merge into one another to reveal the band's inadequacies markedly. I must mention the title track which is perhaps the best song as it features great melodic riffs and a real blistering solo.
Severenth have talent but their style of metal on 'Age of Paranoia' won't appeal to all metalheads that's for sure. They will have their niche fans and position within the metal community but they are never going to hit the heights of success with this standard of material. There is a place for them to gain national success perhaps but this style of music is on it's way out in my opinion. If they harnessed the more thrashier and melodic aspects of their music they could make a name for themselves as young melodic thrashers in the underground.
As things stand Severeth have created a well produced album with decent instrumental passages but nothing memorable or special with regards to song-writing. However since they are young, there is time for them to grow and progress further on future releases and they already have the capabilities instrumentally speaking. Not bad but in the end but this style of metal just doesn't make it on to my 'death deck' and whilst Severenth make a valiant attempt to change that state of affairs, it ends in glorious failure.
© Pirage Forsi
Rating **1/2 (2.5/5.0)
Buy @ Amazon
The Age of Paranoia
Ant Hill 2009
Young UK metal bands always have my deathcore alarm bells ringing very loudly. You see I have this particular aversion to bands that use melodic death as a base whilst screaming and ranting over the top about how the world sucks etc. I also pretty much hate chuggy core breakdowns as they have been done to absolute death by every band that's heard a Killswitch Engage record and let's face it that's near enough every young metal band in existence.
So Severenth from North Wales, it's up to you to make this cynical old school metal fan eat his words be delivering a kick ass record. These young boys actually have little in common with the core brigade and more in common with Nu-Metal to my amazement! I though Nu-Metal was supposed to be dead? Anyway Severenth peddle some kind of melodic death slash nu-metalcore hybrid with quite cool melodic quasi-thrash riffs. The band reminds me of the thrashing parts of Mudvayne quite a bit whilst jamming with ethno nu metal troops Ill Nino. I also hear a few Annihilator style melodic riffs which are quite pleasing on these ears. If they had used more of these rather than the nu-metal chug riffs then they would have more success in my opinion.
The vocals are raspy yet clear and not infused with core screaming thankfully. Their attempt at melodic vocals however ends in failure pretty much, sounding very forced and not good at all. Just stick to the aggressive or learn to sing properly like David Draiman. This type of modern metal is mostly frowned upon by old schoolers as expected. It lacks the type of melody we need to keep us interested for an album's length. Songs start to sound the same as the album progresses and riffs merge into one another to reveal the band's inadequacies markedly. I must mention the title track which is perhaps the best song as it features great melodic riffs and a real blistering solo.
Severenth have talent but their style of metal on 'Age of Paranoia' won't appeal to all metalheads that's for sure. They will have their niche fans and position within the metal community but they are never going to hit the heights of success with this standard of material. There is a place for them to gain national success perhaps but this style of music is on it's way out in my opinion. If they harnessed the more thrashier and melodic aspects of their music they could make a name for themselves as young melodic thrashers in the underground.
As things stand Severeth have created a well produced album with decent instrumental passages but nothing memorable or special with regards to song-writing. However since they are young, there is time for them to grow and progress further on future releases and they already have the capabilities instrumentally speaking. Not bad but in the end but this style of metal just doesn't make it on to my 'death deck' and whilst Severenth make a valiant attempt to change that state of affairs, it ends in glorious failure.
© Pirage Forsi
Rating **1/2 (2.5/5.0)
Buy @ Amazon