Review Summary: Amaranthe lose their way as the band releases their worst studio album to date.
Ever since I heard the album "The Nexus" by Amaranthe I have loved the band ever since. While Amaranthe gets plenty of hate from metal heads for mixing pop elements with metal, I find this criticism to be unwarranted. Every band has to do something different to stand out and that's exactly what Amaranthe has done. Their self titled album, "The Nexus", and "Massive Addictive" were all great, if not fantastic albums, but sadly, the bands fourth studio album "Maximalism" is a very poor rushed effort, with the bands worst songs to date.
"Maximalism" sees the band moving further away from metal elements and switching further into their pop influences. Songs such as "Boomerang" and "That Song" show Elize Ryd trying to channel her inner Beyonce. There is only one problem with that. She isn't beyonce and Amaranthe is supposed to be a metal band. Songs that are more in the realm of metal are clear rip offs of their previous work. Seriously, listen to the song "21" and tell me it isn't exactly like Amaranthe's old song "Drop Dead Cynical" from the "Massive Addictive" album. Another song I have a real problem with is the song "Fury". Yes, it is clearly the most metal song on the album, but by the time we reach this song, which is the 7th song on the album, it is totally out of place. Fury would have been a much better song if it was on any other album, but the Maximalism album.
This whole album feels like a B side album, with a bunch of songs that are flat out mediocre at best, which is sad because I've become to love Amaranthe over the years. Every band makes mistakes and hopefully Amaranthe can overcome these mistakes and get back to the drawing board and write better songs for their next album.
