Susperia "Unlimited" CD
[Candlelight]
The core members of this Norwegian act have contributed to Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child, and Satyricon in the past, and this is the first time I've really heard them, so I was taken aback by their relatively classic form of metal meets modern thrash. It's actually quite a bit better than I had expected. I enjoy the melodic tinges, I really like the gruff singing/shouting (it's not clean, but there's definitely melody to the voice, it's somewhere on the line), and the songs are pretty cool as well. Sometimes the vocal lines border on being catchy, there's a few groovy parts that are slightly too stripped down for me but not too out there, there are a lot of tempo changes, and so on. "Situational Awareness" opens with some awesome clean guitars that don't stick around as long as I would've liked before hitting on a few distinctly Norwegian chord phrasings and jumpy thrash rhythms (killer chorus, too); the longer "Devil May Care" is a bit slower and thicker with some sweet singing and groovy chords that I actually really like; "Beast by Design" is a bit thrashier across the board; etc. Sometimes the drummer breaks the mold and rips through some slick fills with awesome cymbal work, but the singing really makes this disc for me. I don't know why, I just really like most of the vocals a lot and could really see this guy being amazing given the right songs to work within. Now, despite sounding alright, I do think the production could be better. The drums aren't too full, they're okay, but definitely rigid, and the guitars have a strange midrange sheen to them, so they're heavy but not too crunchy. The bass peeks through, but I'd like that to have more punch as well. The only thing I'd leave alone are the vocals, which I enjoy a lot. The mix is fine as well, aside from a few tweaks I'd throw into the rhythm section. The layout does look good, despite the fact that I tend to dislike it when records are based around images of the band members, especially on the front cover. But here the photos are definitely nice, and the designs clean and consistent, so it does look rather nice (except for the odd fetus images which look goofy). The lyrics are strangely boring to me and seem like typical rock lyrics or something, "So tell me where you wanna go, And what the hell you wanna do, Falling dimensions everywhere, Hand in hand go good and evil." Go figure. This is definitely promising work. I don't find enough of the songs memorable enough to be a total fan of it, but I do like it, and the better songs kick ass, so I'd love to hear more from the band. I'm not sure how this compares to their first two records, but they've got some talent to work with here. Interesting... (6/10)
Running time - 45:35, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Situational Awareness, Devil May Care, Home Sweet Hell]
Candlelight Records - http://www.candlelightrecords.co.uk

This review has been displayed 1366 times.