2006-02-27
Scorngrain may not be the first to infuse extreme metal and electronic music, but this album is still one of very few in which the combination of the two genres goes through quite well.
The best resemblance to their music would probably be later-age
Samael, or current
Kovenant , meaning – heavy guitar riffs, shouted vocals, quite black metal in nature, and a fair amount of programming and keyboards as well.
Most of the time the album works extremely well, the opening of the album, "24-7 Hell" spews just the right amount of aggression before the more electronic elements kick in, and when they do they sound quite fluent and sit in well with the music, which is mostly mid-range death metal with some thrashier riffs.
The only bone I have to pick with the first track is the hip-hop sounding midsection, but it evolves quite quickly into a good sounding metallic section.
The title song is pretty straight forwarded death/thrash, it has some
Children of Bodom guitar playing and a fine vocal delivery, the electronic element is less obvious here, but the band doesn’t lose any of its power because of it.
The best track on the album, and the one that enjoys the benefits of the electro-metal idea best is "Killing Breed", a great fast riff, good keyboard use, here all the good ideas come into full bloom.
At points it sounds as if the programming and industrial sounds are unneeded, the band carries enough riffs to make them sound forced in certain bits, but tracks such as the opener and "Killing Breed" tell a different story, in any case, its still a very good album, and a fine member of the growing number of electro-metal bands, but at times I was wondering just how needed is the electro side of things.
Alon Miasnikov
