Degradead - The Monster Within

Published September 12 2013

*=Staff's pick	One Against All* The Monster Within For Better Or Worse Dead Becomes Alive* We'll Meet Again The Dark Mind* Strive To Struggle Scars Of Misery* Tendency To Sin Sorrow Never Betrays

Genre	Metal	Mikael Sehlin	Vocals
Tracks	10	Anders Nyström	Guitar
Running time	41 Min.	David Szücs	Guitar
Label	Metalville	Michel Bärzén	Bass
Release	13 September 2013	Amit Mohla	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Thomas "Plec" Johansson
Similar artists	Scar Symmetry

Stockholm, Sweden metallers Degradead's fourth album. Within its foundations, this is a modern version of metal, often filled with faster and more compact parts and also with vocals who make this music lean towards a lighter edition of death metal. This type of music always place question marks inside my head. I really don't know how to label it and to whom this release will apply to, because it has no blatant direction or target.

It has a somewhat pulsating vibe in most songs, yet with a kind of factitious sound, making it lose the natural vividness. In all fairness, it sounds pretty much like many other metal productions today where the technology overshadows the art. Almost constant violent verses and catchy, clean sung choruses and bridges makes this album pretty repetitive and even though a proper ballad, We'll Meet Again, is featured and also more straight metal songs, I still miss variation and change to complete my full experience.

In the end, The Monster Within feels like one large block of modern metal that leaves no solid impressions to make me want to set my audio system on repeat. This release is definitely not bad, yet from my viewpoint something far from outstanding. The verses mainly feel like long brutal hauls, before they then set focus to one hundred percent on the neat corrected choruses to catch people's attention. I get the feeling that some of the songs are written to get radio listeners hooked to those short captivating moments and to capitalize on instant sensations.

See also review of: Out Of Body Experience , Til Death Do Us Apart

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	3	5	5	4

Summary
4 chalices of 10 - Tobbe