Reset - Freedom

*=Staff's pick	Sorry Freedom* A Matter Of Pride Regret Know*

Genre	Hardcore/Nu Metal	Dinho	Vocals
Tracks	5	Walter	Guitar
Runningtime	17 Min.	Carlos	Guitar
Label		Helder	Bass
Release	2003	Ricardo	Drums
Country	Portugal	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Korn, Machine Head

Portuguese band Reset do not give away their whereabouts with the sound on their demo Freedom. The sound is all American with one foot in the nu-metal area as well as they are reaching towards US power metal and partly towards thrash metal. It is chugging music with a hard-core aggression combined with soft melody lines and refrains that these guys deliver in a rather interesting way. Reset was founded in 1997 under the name Driftaway and recorded their first demo in early 2001. In November 2003 they recorded Freedom at Floyd Studios with Nuno Loureiro helping out producing the demo along with the band.

Reset have a distinct American sound and even though the first track Sorry feels a bit boring to me with its soft hard-core and nu-metal vibes, the demo grows stronger as it spins. The title-track Freedom has a Machine Head groove and a similar aggression to it. The Blood, The Sweat, The Tears from Machine Head comes to mind as there are some strong similarities, but that doesn't stop it from being a very powerful track that sounds really great. Next track, A Matter Of Pride has somewhat of a Korn meets Machine Head vibe to it. It has the rhythms and the groove from Korn and the Machine Head heavy riffing and screaming guitars. Although it is a very static song, Reset manage to get a flow in it and a melodic refrain backed by heavy riffing.

Regret start calmly and go forward with a powerful refrain that is delivered with pressure with, once again, an distinct American sound with bands like, (well I don't know but it is like those bands that seem to pop up everywhere and try to look cool and to act angry but no more angry than that they can be played on MTV kind of bands). Reset do give it some more depth and metal attitude than the average band and manage to stay away from the most obvious slick mainstream sound with this one, since these guys can actually play and deliver a guitar solo that those other band could only dream about since they only know how to play chords. With the last track Know, Reset is bringing out another influence and deliver a track in the vein of Pantera. Heavy chugging guitars with a Pantera groove and guitar-lines that make you think about Dimebag. It has some good heavy riffing and descent shredding in the intense ending of the song that holds some nice drum-rhythms, but it feels like it never gets going. Even though it has some speed, Know lacks a flow. I wait for the song to take off but it never happens.

Reset is a good band and I can spot some potential here. They have a good vocalist in Dinho that manages calmer melodic parts as well as more aggressive screaming vocals. The guitars are in place but perhaps some more work could have been put into the solos, but the riffing is in perfectly good shape. After this demo was done, guitarist and founding member Walter stepped out of the band and has been replaced by André who also plays guitar in the band Shut.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
6	6,5	5

Summary
6 chalices of 10 - Thomas