Night in Gales - Five Scars
This is the first full-length in ten years for Germany’s Night in Gales. They’ve been unsigned for the entire time, producing only a “tenth anniversary” EP and two demo recordings between 2001 and 2011. I don’t remember much about this band other than that their music was melodic Death Metal. They were kind of lumped in with bands like At the Gates, In Flames and Eucharist, but they never achieved the level of fame that the others did. Musically, they have a lot of guitar harmonics and atmospheric riffs, which makes this album an interesting listen. The inclusion of classical instruments, such as a violin in “The Tides of November,” adds an extra layer of atmosphere, but their use is as an inconsistent garnish. The focus is on the guitars - and for a band like this, that is usually where the focus should be - but the extras distract from an otherwise solid harmonic attack. You kind of wonder why the extra instrument is there because it only shows up on occasion, not as the focus of the song. If I were using a “guest instrument,” I’d build the song around it and feature it prominently, otherwise there isn’t much point in including it. Another distraction was that the vocalist is a bit too loud. When you’re a guitar harmony based band, you want to make sure people can hear them. The vocalist occasionally drowns the guitars out and that could have easily been avoided. Other than that, this is a very solid album. It isn’t totally fucking awesome (The Somberlain and Storm of the Light’s Bane are still the albums to beat as far as I’m concerned), but if you like melodic Death Metal, you’re not going to be demanding your money back if you buy this.
(0) Comment(s)
Page 1 of 1 pages