Review Summary: Crushing riffs, beautiful melodies, spectacular drumming, and impressive vocals...all brought together perfectly. This is Metalcore at its finest.
Austria is home to one of the best Metalcore acts around, and we Americans should be taking notes. About three years ago The Sorrow hit the scene, and gave me hope for this genre of music. Their first album, "Blessings From a Blackened Sky" was one hell of an album. It was full of blazing riffs, crushing breakdowns, and fast, fluid, entertaining drumming. The one problem with that album was that the vocals seemed a bit weak, the clean vocals in particular.
Fast Forward to 2009. Origin of the Storm hits the shelves and sets a new standard for Metalcore. Now obviously that's just an opinion, and seeing as how these guys are practically unknown most people would probably disagree. That aside, this album has everything a fan of the genre could hope to hear. The guitarists put out some of the most powerful and catchy riffs that I've ever heard, the drummer is fast, never over the top, but always fun to listen to...and then there's the vocals. All I can say about the vocals is...holy ***. This guy has been doing some practice. He has about twice the range on his screams that he had on the first album, and his cleans sound almost completely different, and I mean that in the best way possible.
The album starts out with "Apnoia," which is a quick opener filled with haunting piano playing and a child speaking of a storm that will wipe out everything on Earth. It's actually pretty creepy. The second the last note in "Apnoia" is struck we're greeted by a massive scream which signals the start of "Where is the sun?" What follows is series of riffs that make me involuntarily bob my head every time I hear them. The track goes on to display a very much improved vocal range, a beautiful chorus, an earth shattering breakdown, and perfectly fitting drumming.
The next track, "My Immortal Guardian" isn't quite as stand out or memorable as "Where is the sun?" but it's very catchy and a great track nonetheless. As "My Immortal Guardian" comes to a close we jump into "Scars," which is my favorite track on the album. For the most part this piece is filled with blazing guitar playing and harsh vocals, but about half way in it morphs into a section filled with beautiful guitar melodies and some the best clean vocals that I've had the pleasure of listening to. The track goes back into another harsh section that leads up to a short but sweet guitar solo before ending on a repeat of the melodic section.
The rest of the album follows this pattern, many songs have sections with clean vocals, which are always pleasant to listen to and never actually slow down the songs, which is something many bands in this genre fail to achieve. For all you breakdown lovers, there are plenty to be found here, and they always seem perfectly placed, never overused, and most importantly...they're powerful. I know how much you people hate track by track reviews so I'll bring this down to a close shortly.
My perfect Metalcore album has: Well placed and powerful breakdowns, a vocalist who has good range in both screams and cleans, a drummer who can put out some awesome fills and rolls while never seeming too over the top, guitarists who know how to dish out absolutely crushing riffs but also know how to introduce great melodies into their playing. And most of all the perfect album is unbelievably catchy, and has sections that I can see myself screaming along with at concerts. This album has every single one of those elements, and I know my words don't even scratch the surface. If you enjoy even a single one of those elements then this album is worth checking out. This is Metalcore at its finest.
