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Engel - Raven Kings

Published November 24 2014


*
=Staff's pick

Salvation*
Your Shadow Haunts You
Denial
Fading Light*
My Dark Path
I Am The Answer
When The Earth Burns
End Of Days
Sanctuary
Broken Pieces
Hollow Soul*


Genre Metal
Mikael Sehlin
Vocals
Tracks 11
Niclas Engelin
Guitar
Running time 38 Min.
Marcus Sunesson
Guitar
Label Gain/Sony Music
Steve Drennan
Bass
Release 26 November 2014
Oscar Nilsson
Drums
Country Sweden
-
Keyboard
Producer M. Sunesson, N. Engelin
Similar artists ---

Engel's fourth album is also lead vocalist Mikael Sehlin's first effort with the band. With guitar player and founding member Niclas Engelin's current involvement in fellow countrymen In Flames, Engel is naturally able to ride the wave and get more attention than what they probably would have gotten otherwise.

Almost all songs land in the 3-4 minute span, so accordingly there's limited time to break out in longer bridges and solos, meaning that this record turns out rather direct and effective. It's pretty much modern metal that includes somewhat angrier vocal parts in the verses, followed by a more clean and lame appearance in the choruses, which generally is a bait that radio listeners take without further questions. The music periodically indicates a view of industrial metal and is basically kind of aggressive, fast and pumping, yet built to weave melodic parts in and to make room for the vocalist to come out less violent.

The record's most negative element is that it ultimately sounds pretty similar from start to finish, even if it certainly has a number of varied songs to open up for a diverse experience. The structures of the music through different songs aren't a complete work of copy and paste, but still the music, together with its kind of boring and too faint production, ends up in some sort of fixed position, making the album seem repetitive in the end. Generally I nevertheless like the record's outcome, but I also get a little tired of it too soon, since I can't find the much needed variation that can keep me attentive all throughout the 38 minutes.

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

6

4

4

6

6

 
Summary



6 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.facebook.com/engel.propaganda