Review Summary: An enjoyable album which gives the band the opportunity to develop their musicianship even further.
The Sorrow, a four-piece Metalcore act from Austria, have had a very consistent career in their genre. Two great releases showed fans what the band was capable of and with this experience under their belt it was time for them to show us how much they had improved.
"The Sorrow" is quite easily the band's most refined and sophisticated album. Previous efforts such as "Blessings From A Blackened Sky" had plenty of potential, and delivered, but felt that they were lacking in a few key areas such as song structure and the use of clean vocals. In this release, the song structure is very consistent and the singing has been greatly improved.
Although the band has made a real effort to improve their musicality, this album is not without its flaws. The song structure, while improved, can get repetitive at times. This is not to say that it isn't good music, as there are a handful of songs which really stand out from the majority. "Crossing Jordan", "You Are My Nemesis" and "Facing The End" all have excellent melodic work and heaviness to them. There comes a real sense of familiarity when listening to the album. Killswitch Engage appears to be a major influence to the band. A large amount of the guitar work is reminiscent of the Adam D and Joel Stroetzel duo that Metalcore fans have come to love over the years and it's great to see another band applying the work of different artists to their own.
I found it very surprising to hear what The Sorrow had accomplished with this release and how much they had improved. Their début album was released only three years prior to this one and I was quite impressed to see a band improve so much in such a small period of time. They have progressed a great deal in their musicality. As stated earlier, the clean vocals have been majorly improved to the extent that Mathias Schlegl could be considered as one of the most talented Metalcore singers going around today. The melodic guitar work emphasises this very well. His screaming is also consistently good, although he does less of it in this release. The bass isn't is as audible as I would have liked, and there seems to be much more focus on the guitars. However, it makes a statement in the epic intro of the previously mentioned "Facing The End". The drumming provides a very good foundation for the rest of the band's music. When the guitars and singing are the main focus, the drums provide a good, structured beat but can get very complex with non-linear pedal work and fills which intensify the atmosphere of a selection of songs on the album including "Weight of The World" and "Paragon In Charity".
The Sorrow's latest effort provides a greatly improved, impressive and overall enjoyable listen to Metalcore fans and although it is not without its flaws, gives the band plenty of room to grow and develop their musical skills even further.
Recommended Tracks:
"Crossing Jordan"
"You Are My Nemesis"
"Facing The End"
"Reach For The Skies"
