Melodic Death Metal is still alive and kicking it seems. Hell, even Soilwork released a surprisingly good record just the other day. Yet, the stagnation and overcrowding of the genre doesn’t keep newcomers away, as Germany’s Cypecore want their piece of the cake with Innocent.

Apparently released two years ago as a demo, now reissued by Twilight-Vertieb, Innocent is nothing new under the sun that’s seen it all. To hide the fact, there’s a slight industrial-overtone present at times, but unfortunately it doesn’t play as important a role, as it perhaps could and should. Actually, I was slightly surprised about how familiar, and true to the genre, the band is in their delivery; it’s clear they’ve listened to In Flames and Dark Tranquility quite a bit. Also, with the help of some similar struts (“Something Inside”), Cypecore is reminds of Construcdead’s unsung classic debut, Repent. Too bad Innocent isn’t anywhere near as relentless and vicious. I was also quite surprised about how singer Attila Erdélyi isn’t trying to out-do Fridén all the time. He mainly uses his good-but-generic growl to get through the songs… in fact, I can’t remember there being any clean vocals, which is a major surprise.

The songs have some nice details and ideas (“Final Hour”), even catchy and memorable moments (“Control Yourself”, “The Origin of Hate”), but that alone doesn’t cut it, especially when there are some really bland, if not outright boring, tracks (“Signs”) to go and sing along to. The ‘worth a listen or two’-songs, too, have a problem carrying on. For example, the aforementioned “Something Inside” starts out with a strong bite but at some point it strays, and I forgot what was good about the track in the first place. The length becomes the biggest flaw of Innocent: 12 songs (including intro and outro) and 53-minutes is simply too much to ask when the material isn’t up to task. Innocent doesn’t end in a down-note, as closer “Distraction” might be one of the album’s most balanced cuts.

There’s nothing criminally wrong with Cypecore’s stuff, but as it is there are bands that have done it all before—and better—so it’s hard to recommend Innocent to even the most fanatic of the melodic death metal fanatics. Even if they might get a kick out of it. If, and only if, the band will be able to forge their sound towards one that can be called their own—whilst paying more attention to interesting songwriting—then I’ll admit the possibility of an up-side.

[Visit the band's website]

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