Another offering coming from Italy, this time by Elvenking, who play a poppy, Americanized mix of Power metal, Melodic Death, and Folk. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but the first band that comes to mind when listening to The Scythe is recent Avenged Sevenfold. Extremely accessible melodic metal, with moments of slightly flashy axe work, and a vocalist is who pulls off the Power metal style decently, but then trashes it with hints of emo sounding whining and the occasional growl or hardcore shout.

Most of the material on display here is rather dumbed and slowed down sounding, with the folk influences seemingly coming out of nowhere at times (“Poison Tears”). “Romance and Wrath” starts well with a more aggressive up tempo woven with folk elements then dives into a Children of Bodom-esque sound before totally killing anything remotely cool in the musical department with the vocals – then you realize this shit is gonna drag on for an additional seven plus minutes and you find yourself reaching for the skip button. “Totentaz” is filled with more speed (not much) and has a much thrashier nature to it, but even so, it’s not enough to save it from the once again weak vocal display.

The Scythe is well produced and maybe even overly so, but that seems to be the only worthwhile aspect here. I just couldn’t find anything on this album that I could consider somewhat appealing, and quite honestly, this was fairly painful and annoying to listen to. I simply cannot see what any metal fan would find appealing here, except possibly those who have recently gotten into metal, and in particular, Power metal. I’ll pass.

[Visit the band's website]

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