Whenever an artist, PR company or record label forwards me some new music to check out, I’m always interested to see what part of the world it comes from. Often I’ve mentioned certain parts of the world being affiliated with certain scenes or styles musically, but it’s always nice to find diversity from within a town, city or general region…and today’s review highlights just that. Lund, Sweden, may not be a destination that jumps out at you as being instantly recognisable, but for any fellow Eurovision fans out there you may know that it the home of one MÅNS ZELMERLÖW, and while I would more than happily listen to Sweden’s answer to JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE for this review, we won’t be covering any pop music for now. “Thank fuck” I can already hear you say…
Lund also happens to be the home of a band by the name of THROUGH THE NOISE, and the team over at Eclipse Records forwarded me their latest album “Dualism” to check out. The five-piece (Consisting of vocalist Jowl Nyberg, guitarists Victor Adonis and Marcus Skantz, bassist Martin Lingonblad and drummer Peter Liwgren) were founded back in 2010, and in the years that followed they established themselves as more than promising up-and-comers within Sweden’s thriving metal community, especially with their 2015 debut “Fall Of Gaia”, but now in 2019 they want to well and truly stamp their name among the metalcore elite and hope to do so with these nine new tracks. Hellfire Magazine summed things up by describing the album as having ‘Interesting, surprisingly well-functioning songs’…back handed compliment and a half that! Consider me intrigued!
We open up with a track called “Shattered” and the virtually instant impact of hard hitting chords, with the duel pummelling of riffs and percussion gives this an intense start! It’s bass-heavy and subtly down-tuned but doesn’t compromise whatsoever when it comes to delivering a harsh dose of surging metal. To a degree you could say it bridges a gap between the likes of ATREYU and CHILDREN OF BODOM, but however you look at it; it doesn’t give a fuck…it just mauls. Early album highlight “Psychomachia” follows up next and we’re joined by guest vocalist Jahna Lund of DEATH BY HORSE fame. For the most part it’s more generally expected metalcore, teetering on generic with its methodical chugging and breakdown-inspired stylistics, but the clean vocals provided by Jahna allow for more melody to flow through the chorus and it’s all balanced very well.
A lot of the album does stick to a firm metalcore/deathcore formula for the most part but it does have more than a couple of points of worth. “House Of Asterion” combines up-tempo post-hardcore with subtle thrash and death elements resulting in an incredibly frenetic listen. “Secret Project” houses a touch more melodic instrumentation, with Jahna again providing backing gang-vocal harmony…the nods to Swedish heavyweights IN FLAMES are proudly on display here. Let’s be honest mind OF COURSE they were going to have a bit of In Flames in them, they’re a Swedish metal band for fuck sake! “Maktbegär” retains all of the pace and again, pummels the listener with a fine slab of scando-death-punk not too unlike the likes of KVELERTAK and MAN THE MACHETES in places, while “Meaning Through Noise” takes on an almost industrial tone, akin to the likes of STATIC-X.
Overall, while not exactly original, bearing in mind recent musical trends and the fact they come from one of the most saturated areas on the planet when it comes to alternative metal, Through The Noise have still managed to deliver a crisp and enjoyable metalcore album. The brief crossover portions work well and they’ve added enough flavour to ensure they don’t blend into genre obscurity like Homer Simpson walking backwards into a hedge row. Put Through The Noise through your speakers, as this album is certainly worth a listen. [7]
Lund also happens to be the home of a band by the name of THROUGH THE NOISE, and the team over at Eclipse Records forwarded me their latest album “Dualism” to check out. The five-piece (Consisting of vocalist Jowl Nyberg, guitarists Victor Adonis and Marcus Skantz, bassist Martin Lingonblad and drummer Peter Liwgren) were founded back in 2010, and in the years that followed they established themselves as more than promising up-and-comers within Sweden’s thriving metal community, especially with their 2015 debut “Fall Of Gaia”, but now in 2019 they want to well and truly stamp their name among the metalcore elite and hope to do so with these nine new tracks. Hellfire Magazine summed things up by describing the album as having ‘Interesting, surprisingly well-functioning songs’…back handed compliment and a half that! Consider me intrigued!
We open up with a track called “Shattered” and the virtually instant impact of hard hitting chords, with the duel pummelling of riffs and percussion gives this an intense start! It’s bass-heavy and subtly down-tuned but doesn’t compromise whatsoever when it comes to delivering a harsh dose of surging metal. To a degree you could say it bridges a gap between the likes of ATREYU and CHILDREN OF BODOM, but however you look at it; it doesn’t give a fuck…it just mauls. Early album highlight “Psychomachia” follows up next and we’re joined by guest vocalist Jahna Lund of DEATH BY HORSE fame. For the most part it’s more generally expected metalcore, teetering on generic with its methodical chugging and breakdown-inspired stylistics, but the clean vocals provided by Jahna allow for more melody to flow through the chorus and it’s all balanced very well.
A lot of the album does stick to a firm metalcore/deathcore formula for the most part but it does have more than a couple of points of worth. “House Of Asterion” combines up-tempo post-hardcore with subtle thrash and death elements resulting in an incredibly frenetic listen. “Secret Project” houses a touch more melodic instrumentation, with Jahna again providing backing gang-vocal harmony…the nods to Swedish heavyweights IN FLAMES are proudly on display here. Let’s be honest mind OF COURSE they were going to have a bit of In Flames in them, they’re a Swedish metal band for fuck sake! “Maktbegär” retains all of the pace and again, pummels the listener with a fine slab of scando-death-punk not too unlike the likes of KVELERTAK and MAN THE MACHETES in places, while “Meaning Through Noise” takes on an almost industrial tone, akin to the likes of STATIC-X.
Overall, while not exactly original, bearing in mind recent musical trends and the fact they come from one of the most saturated areas on the planet when it comes to alternative metal, Through The Noise have still managed to deliver a crisp and enjoyable metalcore album. The brief crossover portions work well and they’ve added enough flavour to ensure they don’t blend into genre obscurity like Homer Simpson walking backwards into a hedge row. Put Through The Noise through your speakers, as this album is certainly worth a listen. [7]
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