I’m not sure what was going on over at the usually reliable Mighty Music at the end of 2014. After a couple of solid releases in Solbrud,  Planet Rain and Herod, the label sent me a slew of hard rock releases; Ruinside, Distance, 23 Acez, Annominus, Estate, Saint Rebel and such. And all of it pretty awful; Not because of the style- I try to be open minded, but it’s awful rock. Only the Vanir, the Distance release, I, and this the debut from Sweden’s Unfaithful (the later two being pretty similar  in style and substance) were really worth me sharing my opinion on from the label’s late 2014 releases.

And while this is still a modern hard rock, groove metal, thrash metal/modern metal hybrid, it’s the heaviest of the recent crop and still is a little outside of my usual metallic realms. It’s got a little more gruffer than regular /radio rock edge to it akin to some of the 90s /nu metal/ hard rock such as Stompbox, Tantric, Soil, White Zombie, Staind and at their heaviest, maybe some slight thrash/groove metal akin to something  like Pro-Pain or Skinlab or some of the Pavement/Crash releases of the mid/late 90s and early 00s.

It’s not totally terrible (compared to tje band mentioned in the opening paragraph) and it’s some balls here and there, and its sways between something you might hear on a modern rock radio station, or something on Headbangers Ball in the mid 90s. The guitars have some beef and front-man Marcus Karregard has a gravely shout and croon that’s not cringe inducing, even with a majority of the lyrics based on 90s action movies. If opening song below,”Vegas Baby”, second track  title track or “Medicated For Your Protection” reels you in of gets your foot tapping, then the rest of the  album should at least keep you happy. However, if you think its mindless commercial tripe, like some of it is (“The Kid”, “Childhood Friend”),  and you want to shove a rotten dick into each ear, I would not blame you.

At least the label has the likes of No Return, Pandemia and death metal legends Brutality to start 2015 off a little better than they ended 2014. And you may wonder why is he reviewing this? And I’m going to be honest, I’m forcing my self to review some of these weaker releases, in hope we stay on the label’s good side when the Brutality drops. Yeah. I’m a whore.

[Visit the band's website]

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