Massacre/Sound Pollution
KAMBRIUM hails from Helmstedt in Germany, and debuts with this melodic death metal album. They go for everything from almost pop death metal, as in “Dewfall” to the melancholic “Hollow Heart”. Inbetwixt there is a lot of death and IRON MAIDEN-like guitar riffs. The majority of the songs are written by keyboardist Jan Hein, which you can tell quite soon. Grooves, headbanging, melancholy, how could they go wrong?
The opening intro shows who´s done most of the material. It´s a grand piece of almost orchestrated grandeur, in spite of being short. The polka meets IRON MAIDEN rifferama of “Among the Lost” opens for a great heavy metal song, only the flat and dry growl of bassist Martin Simon puts the band in another direction. The direction is somewhat confusing at times, but the output is not bad at all, especially for a bunch of debutants. They are careful to mix in different paces and to add that precious keyboard pattern here and there, at times all over. “Thanatos” is the next outstanding moment, the opening was last heard in a BON JOVI hit, and the catchy keyboard work in one of the many Finnish bands of today, while the refrain was steeped in melodic heavy metal. Why stick to one or two genres only? The trio of the acoustically opened “Hiding in Sorrow”, the catchy but poorly sung “The Eye of Horus” (Heard that line in a MAIDEN song…right), and the almost pop refrain blessed “Dewfall” is the final conviction. The generous mixing of genres and the musical abilities, or at least sense of melody and beast, makes this a great debut from a promising band.
Track List
Shadowpath (Intro)
Among the Lost
Aiming for Retribution
Thanatos
Feuer Gegen Feuer
Hollow Heart
Hiding in Sorrow
The Eye of Horus
Dewfall
A Sinner´s Remorse
www.massacre-records.com www.myspace.com/kambrium
