2006-03-23
I'd like to start out with the two negative things about this release, its name – Death Pop Romance, the album has nothing to do with Pop, has very little romance in it, and the only thing that's really there is Death, metal that is. And the second – Its cover, it has very little to do with the band's music, looks more like something out of an alternative rock album.
Now for the good stuff, this band kicks ass. Not the deepest of declarations, I admit, but their brand of highly melodic, sharp sounding melodic death metal/metalcore is preformed with brilliant amounts of energy, fine guitar riffs and well crafted vocals, no matter how you define the band's music, I enjoyed it.
Probably the nearest thing to the music the band creates is
Soilwork's latest effort – “Stabbing The Drama”, its crystal clear melodic death metal with some clean melodic vocals thrown in, only Raunchy infuse more electronics into the mix, and that might be the reason why the word POP was shoved into the title, but there's no pop here, admittedly, their music is catchy and almost rock-like melodic, but they certainly do not drop any of the aggression and heavy riffs that the melodic death metal genre dictates.
The first track has all of the band's trademarks, a heavy death metal riff, some strong growled vocals, all infused with a smart use of keyboards and programming and with a fine groove that gives the band a more modern sounding edge.
It's on tracks such as “Phantoms” that the band really takes the high tech element into further extremes, sounding a bit more like
Rammstien at times, but again, without completely deserting the heavier bits.
Extra mention should go to the top-notch sound, courtesy of Jacob Hansen and Tue Madsen, two very busy guys that can make even a waste disposal machine sound good, here, with the talent of the band, it sounds incredible.
Raunchy may be the next big thing in the growing metalcore scene, and I can see them making it big time in the US as well, lets just hope they can keep this amount of quality up.
Alon Miasnikov
