The Soulless – Isolated

The Soulless – Isolated (Earache, 2011)

Here we are, about to review another melodic death metal album. This style is totally saturated with plenty of good bands, but with plenty of shitty ones as well. So when I received the new album of the British melodic death metal band The Soulless, I was like “here we go again”. The band is not exclusively a newcomer as they released an album under their previous moniker of Ignominious Incarceration (pretty weird name) titled “Of Winter Born” back in 2009, a solid album by the way, but nothing stellar. So, it seems that the guys decided that they needed a new name that will be at least pronounceable, so they become The Soulless. And under their new name they released “Isolated”, an album that basically took me by surprise.

“Isolated” fits the description of melodic death metal, but it has its fair share of metalcore with its breakdowns. But before you decide to stop reading, let me tell you that the vocals are exclusively death growls, not even a single whinny emo-tinged line like the ones that plagued the metalcore. The guitar riffs are very solid ones, with a slight djent sound on them. But of course, when you decide to listen to a melodic death metal album you expect some killer melodies coming out of nowhere and “Isolated” has tons of it. The album lacks some solos, but to be honest, the riffs and the killer melodies compensate for their absence. As for the album highlights, every track is pretty solid and memorable and I cannot point to any one that stand outs from the rest.

“Isolated” does not offer anything new, but it’s a whole lot better than the average album on this style. Sometimes you don’t have to be a genius or play highly technical stuff to come up with a solid album and with “Isolated” The Soulless proved that with simple songs, but very well played and with a tight band, you can come up with excellent results. If you are a fan of either melodic death metal or metalcore, this album is for you.

“Isolated” is due to be released in May 16th in Europe and on June 7th in the USA. It can be preordered via Amazon or by visiting the band’s website at http://thesoullessband.com.

HMT Rating: 8/10

Arch Enemy – Khaos Legions

Arch Enemy – Khaos Legions (Century Media Records, 2011)

Arch Enemy is one of those bands that you either love or hate. The Swedish melodic death metal band is one of the most polarizing bands from the last couple of years. While plenty of fans consider vocalist Angela Gossow a disaster, there are plenty that consider her as the best thing since sliced bread. Every single album since Angela joined the band has been worshiped by many while hated by plenty. So, having this in mind, their new album “Khaos Legions” will be no exception. Those who have hated them will continue to hate them, but the fans that loved them will love them even more, as “Khaos Legions” is one of the best albums with Angela onboard.

First, “Khaos Legions” is their most melodic album ever. But being melodic does not means they dropped their heaviness as this album contains some of their heaviest and fastest stuff of their career. The albums production is just flawless, no doubt that this is their best sounding album ever. Every instrument is perfectly audible and Angela’s vocals sound, well like Angela, no big difference, a slighter raspy tone perhaps. The best thing on the album aside from the production: the guitar solos from the Amott brothers. It’s in the “soloing” where I found the most melodic stuff in this album, and it is awesome indeed.

“Khaos Legions” is also very varied, I can say it’s Arch Enemy’s most varied album of their career, which is a good thing as there is no way this album will offer you any kind of monotony. As for the album highlights, the first single “Yesterday Is Dead And Gone”, a track that has every of the elements that make Arch Enemy loved (or hated), “Under Black Flags We March” (“We Rise” déjà-vu?), “City of The Dead”, “Cruelty Without Beauty”, and “Cult Of Chaos”, all very different songs from each other but equally great.

Arch Enemy didn’t reinvent themselves with “Khaos Legions”, but they offered us 11 solid tracks and 3 instrumental intros, for a total of 14 tracks. With such a long album you might think that there are plenty of fillers, but no, this is a solid album from beginning to end with absolutely no fillers. With “Khaos Legions” the band will continue their raise to stardom, while keeping their haters busy as well.

“Khaos Legions” is due to be released on May 30th in Europe, and on June 7th in the USA. It can be preordered via Amazon or by visiting the label’s webshop at http://www.cmdistro.com.

HMT Rating: 8/10

Scar Symmetry – The Unseen Empire

Scar Symmetry – The Unseen Empire (Nuclear Blast, 2011)

Can you define melodic progressive death metal? Well, the definition will depend on whom you ask. But if you need to point to a band that defines it, Scar Symmetry is just what you need. The Swedish band has been delivering the goods since 2005 and with each album they have show the fans how to write catchy hooks without loosing the technical aspects. This leads us to their new album titled “The Unseen Empire”, their fifth album and second one to features the dual vocal attack of Roberth Karlsson and Lars Palmqvist after the departure of the mighty Christian Älvestam. On the previous album “Dark Matter Dimensions” both singers did a good job replacing the irreplaceable Christian, especially Roberth with his growls. The weakest link was Lars, who although having a very good voice, lacked the emotion of Christian’s clean vocals parts. Well, this time the improvement is noticeable. Roberth is better than ever and Lars put the emotion needed to make his clean vocals parts to work effectively. The overall result is like a “heaven and hell” duality.

Musically “The Unseen Empire” is a big step in the right direction as well. While “Dark Matter Dimensions” and “Holographic Universe” (the last album with Christian handling the vocals) lacked that metal in-your-face punch, “The Unseen Empire” features a heavier approach with a very dense and thick production courtesy of their guitarist Jonas Kjellgren who is the producer as well. Some of the songs have a very “djent” riffing, which perfectly matches the melodies that float through the whole album. The album opens with “The Anomaly” and upon the first minute or so; you noticed that Scar Symmetry meant serious business this time. Fourth song “Seers Of Eschaton”, combines the best of all the band’s elements: heavy riffing, melodies from heaven (or hell?) and great vocals making it one of the albums highlights.

Through the whole album we get our fill of some mid-tempo “proggy” songs (Extinction Mantra, Domination Agenda, The Draconian Arrival), alternating with heavier ones (The Anomaly, Seers Of Eschaton, Astronomicon, Alpha And Omega). Another great thing is the lyrical concept dealing with the “Illuminati” and conspiracy theories about world domination, a very interesting concept to those of you who pay attention to lyrics. The album highlights: The Anomaly, Seers Of Eschaton, Astronomicon, The Draconian Arrival and Alpha And Omega. To sum it up, “The Unseen Empire” is a great album that will please Scar Symmetry long time fans and that will appeal to newcomers as well. I have to say that “The Unseen Empire” is Scar Symmetry’s best album since 2006’s “Pitch Black Progress”. The musicianship is just flawless and Roberth and Lars did such a great job this time. Get this album, it will not disappoint you.

HMT Rating: 9/10