Seven Spires - Gods Of Debauchery (Frontiers Music Srl)
Formed at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Gods Of Debauchery is Seven Spires third album following on from 2017's Solveig and 2020's Emerald Seas. It is again a record that is darkly cinematic, the five piece bringing huge symphonic elements and progressive songwriting, wrapped up in a heavy style of metal that can be associated with bands such as Arch Enemy, The Agonist and Soilwork. Much of Seven Spires' approach is driven by singer/keyboardist Adrienne Cowan who easily changes between soaring highs and powerful roars, meaning the band can put as much power and melodic metal as they do death and black metal. Again this album was born out of the pandemic with touring not possible, either as Seven Spires or for Cowan as the vocalist for Sasch Paeth's Master Of Ceremonies.
It seems that like with a popular brand of canned crisps, once they popped they couldn't stop because Gods Of Debauchery is a 16 track, 70+ minute record which features some guest turns from Casey Lee Williams, Jon Pyres and Roy khan (Conception, ex-Kamelot), the three of them adding to the theatrical nature of this record. I do have a bit of a problem with this record though, as musically it's slick and powerful, with the best bits of bands like Kamelot along with Soilwork but it is probably about 6 tracks too long, especially when they don't play four minute pop songs, though the dreadful Lightbringer is the exception. There's still lot of people who enjoy the symphonic metal style and when the melo-death sounds come in, it makes Seven Spires stand out from a very dense genre. 7/10
Between Worlds - Self Released (Frontiers Music Srl)
Impact Approved – Into The Fray (Wormholedeath)
Recorded and produced by drummer Uwe Reese, Into The Fray is Impact Approved’s debut album. Everything on the record was played by Uwe, with the exception of the vocals that were added by Philipp Kock over three week period. However as the album was coming together Uwe and Phil were joined by Armin Witt (guitars) and Maurice Zwoch (bass), who collaborated with the final mix of the record. The German band signed with Wormholedeath to release it digitally (having already been brought out as a CD). Into The Fray is Melodic Death metal nothing more or less, the band say they have drawn from djent, math/deathcore for new material but Into The Fray has quiet/loud dynamics in the guitar playing, shouted/croaked vocals and blasbeats so it’s about as melo-death as it gets. There’s a cinematic strings intro to Flame Of Madness, while many of the songs are probably a little too deathcore for my liking, especially in the vocals. However when they play a bit cleaner, like on Last Good Fight they are decent enough, although I have an issue with Phil’s almost black metal sounding vocal. At nine tracks it’s not an album that will have you giving up hope halfway through but I’m picky when it comes to melo-death and Impact Approved was just a little too one dimensional for me to enjoy it more than just in passing. 5/10
Headless – Square One (M-Theory Audio)