Hmmm... not what I expected. This Swiss act is basically a nu-metal band, with lyrics in both English and either Spanish or Portuguese (I think it's Spanish). I'm not sure if they consider themselves to be a metalcore act or what, I guess there are some riffs that could pass for that, but there's really no skirting around the fact that the detuned grooves, chunky rhythm patterns, and shifts from burly shouting to monotone singing are basically dead in line with the heavier side of nu-metal. And honestly, I'm not that into it. The Spanish vocal patterns of course create some really nice arrangements, but the music isn't very interesting or memorable. They do have a solid recording for a self-released effort. The guitar tone is really heavy and well honed, you can hear the bass well, and the percussion sounds natural. I think the vocals are a little bit plain (especially the singing/speaking passages), and it needs polishing up, but for what it is they have achieved a strong core. And the groovy aspects aren't so jumpy or staccato that I'm truly irritated, it's more that they're just lacking force, and the songs sound fairly similar to one another. A few tracks, such as the title piece and "Green Line", have clean passages, but those are even weaker as they lack the texture of the distortion, and the clean tone is pretty bland. I don't know, it's pretty derivative material structurally and sonically. The way the vocals shift is pretty faux emotional, and the singing in "Green Line", while a bit more effective, is honestly very generic. Some of the subtly melodic riffing in "Desnudo Sin Piel" is pretty good, but oddly the guitar tone has more of a sheen to it, and one of the layers sounds out of tune, which deadens the blow significantly. After a few minutes of blank space there are some bonus tracks, one might be a cover song or something, I'm not really sure. The CD comes in a glossy digipack with minimal artwork consisting of abstract textures/designs and band photos. Honestly I don't like the layout at all because the color scheme and especially the typefaces are ineffective and lack visual appeal, so it ends up looking a bit jumbled and somewhat immature (as far as design technique, that is). No lyrics are included, just a brief set of recording credits and such. This is an uneventful release overall. I can tell what they seem to be going for, and I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy it even if they did succeed. They need to press for a bit more innovation, and if nothing else they need to work with more tempo changes and true emotion to their songwriting to really communicate something to the listener.
[self-released]
Running time - 53:00 (approximately), Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: none of them really stick out to me]
Minkus - http://www.minkus.ch
