Metal Church - The Weight Of The World
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Leave Them Behind* |
| Genre | Heavy Metal |
Ronny Munroe
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 10 |
Kurdt Vanderhoof
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 56 Min. |
Jay Reynolds
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Guitar
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| Label | SPV |
Steve Unger
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Bass
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| Release | 29 Sept. June 2004 |
Kirk Arrington
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Drums
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| Country | USA |
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Iron Maiden, Iced Earth | ||
I have said it before and I will probably say it again - this is too American for my taste. The production is too clean, the songs too neatly structured and the rawness too absent. But besides that, this is a good comeback record from the West Coast metal veterans.
The opening track Leave Them Behind has some classical metal riffs that tickles your well-being. The drums are quite heavy. It's a rather typical up-tempo starter. New singer Ronny Munroe finishes with a cliché-like scream in falsetto. But doesn't it sound very much like something Iron Maiden has done a hundred times? A promising start nevertheless. The title track has that kind of groovy guitars that makes my metal heart melt. A typical mid-tempo "second song". Hero's Soul shows that the Maiden-feeling I got was not a coincidence.
Sunless Sky is half a ballad and half an epic metal-piece. Again Munroe includes some falsettos in exactly the right places. Cradle To Grave is another classic piece of metal with dueling twin guitars. Time Will Tell has a slow melody with heavy guitars. Maybe the vocals are too prominent in the mix. Although Munroe does the job with great honor, I want more guitars! The intro to Blood Money has some evidential similarities to a song called Wicker Man, if that sounds familiar...
This is totally okay, but not that much more actually.
Good variation of songs, competent musicianship and all that. But nevertheless
too much sticking to the well-known pattern. A few unexpected edges
would do this record good!
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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5 |
8 |
6 |
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Summary
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6 chalices of 10 - David |
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