Review Summary: Not good but certainly not bad. The Mirror is an album by a band that has more potential than what they exhibit here. Another mediocre metalcore album to add to the over-crowded list.
Awaken Demons are a band hailing from Cesena, Italy. In 2007 they released their debut album "From Heaven To Hell" through Seventh Dagger and embarked on a relentless touring schedule with bands; xAFBx and Rhinoceros. xAFBx displays nothing special instrumentals with very "unclean" screaming that could be compared with the vocals found on Avenged Sevenfolds, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet album (minus the singing). Rhinoceros displays a slower, heavy form of metalcore with half spoken screams and again, nothing special instrument work. Awaken Demons second studio album "The Mirrors" doesn't offer anything new from their friends in the first two bands but more so, offers a better version of it.
The Mirrors is a metalcore album that is closer to being "hardcore" on the spectrum if it werent for the many breakdowns. The album vocals are relentless screams that prove to be somewhat enjoyable at first listen but seem repetitive about midway through the album. The only break from the harsh vocals displayed by vocalist: Luca Zattoni, are the constant gang vocals that occur in almost every song. Bass drops are also a regular occurance throughout the album and add a different level of heavyness to the albums sound. The production quality is also very good which is best exemplified a few seconds into the albums opener "Coming to an End" with the great sounding double bass pedal. This also proved to be a very well done song that gave the album some hope. The only issue is that the other songs didn't display too much creativity apart from each other. I have listened to the whole album a few times and still find it very hard to determine one song from another. Track two "Drawn to Deaths Door" features guest vocals by Karl Buechner (Earth Crisis). The track (if not the whole album) will make the listener want to stomp around like a Gorilla, despite the fact that the album doesen't stray far from metalcore by the books. The third track "Abandon the Darkness I realized features guest vocals from Vincent Bennet (The Acacia Strain) and very well done vocals at that. The rest of the album recycles the same riffs a few too many times and begins to get boring. The lyrics arent half bad but use swearing too often for the sake of "heavyness." Track 7 "Real" has some of the poorest lyrics found on the album when Luca screams: "Where's your ***ing pride in my heart where's your ***ing pride... there are no other words for you other than *** you eye for an eye this is how you die ***." That line right there could be used as a parody for modern hardcore music. Too much of this album reminded me of one of my least favorite bands in the world, "Emmure." The rest of the album seems like a dead end until the title track begins. It's an instrumental but proves very unique to the rest of the album and is the biggest risk taken by the band at a somewhat different sound. It has great guitar work and could be called "epic" if that's what you prefer.
Overall this album isn't good but it certainly isn't bad either. It is just mediocre and dosen't offer anything new to the over crowded scene that is metalcore or hardcore. I would reccomend it to any die hards of breakdowns and heavy music, or even as a starting point to hardcore/metalcore all together. If you are looking for something creative and different then I wouldn't reccomend you spend any money on this album or at least find a good torrent.
I would reccomend the tracks:
Coming To An End
Drawn to Deaths Door
Abandon the Darkness
