One of the great things about this sort of fun punk is that it never hangs around too long. They don’t really do long songs, 4 minutes being a bit of an epic for them. “13 Shades of Black” even has a tinge of Metallica about it if they were fronted by Danzig. It's called “death rock,” but the catchiness on show here really does not evoke any feeling of something deathy.
There is a strong metal tinge to the whole proceedings, no more so than on the great track that ends the whole thing called “Samhain”. However, one has to wonder about the future of this band as their lead singer recently died in motorcycle accident. We shall see if this sophomore effort is also their swansong. A pity if it is, but a glowing tribute to their fallen frontman.
Samothrace: Life’s Trade
This is one of those releases that runs along the thin line between interesting and intriguing and utter complete self-indulgent, mind-numbing bollocks. It's clearly in the doom metal variety making Anathema or Opeth at their dreariest sound like the bloody Beach Boys. The albums consists of four tracks and is a little over an hour in length. This is not exactly the music you want to put on at a party as it would bring the whole place down. They out misery goths by a long shot that is for sure.
A bludgeoning wall of plodding sludge with death-metally like vocals putting up every so often. You could call this stuff the anti-thrash. Instead of sticking as many notes in a song as possible this is as a few as you can but still stick together.
So either brilliant or bollocks that it's really hard to describe or put a rating to. It entirely depends on your mood and if you can even contemplate getting into it. Listening to this stuff saps any will you have to even move. It’s a mind-numbing tour-de-force or something.
Theocracy: Mirror of the Souls
Would you be shocked to hear this lot are happy-clappys and sound a bit like Stryper if they played power metal instead of big-hair heavy pop? “On Eagle's Wings” sounds like Stryper if they really played something decent and avoided the twee like the plague. What I am actually getting at is that Theocracy are actually quite good.
Combining elements of Helloween and prog-metal like Dream Theater they actually have more in common with ex-Spock’s Beard lead vocalists Neal Morse’s output. The trouble is that the lead singer of Theocracy sounds like the bloke named Sweet who used to front the yellow and black brigade. The next track “Laying the Demon to Rest” is quality power metal that would not be out of place on the best of such symphonic metal releases. It's 100% head-banging goodness that would make any fan of the genre full of admiration. Just get the lead singer a pack of cigarettes please?
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