Malstrom - The World Will Be Lost - 2006 - Self Released

EC has had some playing time with this melodic death outfit. He has covered the band's first EP and their follow-up "Obligated By Obscurity". Since then the band has parted ways with singer/guitarist Jeff Jardine and replaced him with nineteen year old Remy Walle (who also steps in to produce). On vocals the band has recruited fellow Bronx mate Carlos Garcia. Now the band have released their first full-length album in "The World Will Be Lost", self released by the band.

This time around the band really is taking things to the next level with Walle's fantastic guitar shreds, using the old vs new sounds of heavy guitar drones and the injection of neo-classical moments, sometimes even slowing things down to go acoustic right in the middle of metallic madness. EC had mentioned earlier that he was glad Jardine took over as vocalist. This time around I think Garcia is a good pick for the band but often his vocals are all over the place and hard to really grasp and sometimes overpowered by the music.

The record is filled with plenty of new wave sounding guitar riffs crossed up with the primitive tooling of Sweden's finest metal acts (Grave, Unleashed, In Flames). The group focuses on combining different aspects of thrash, melodic death, and straight up hardcore rumblings to make a really diverse sound that is compelling and addictive. Take a listen to opener "Our Last Bird Flies On Forever" with its twin guitar romps, heavy tuned mosh grooves, and the neo-classical fusion that sounds like prime power metal. "My Mortal Fetish" gallops at a full charge and combines all of the Malstrom traits that has permeated within the band on their prior releases. "Meridian" moves at a slightly slower pace with a slight Dark Tranquillity intro before Garcia overlaps it with some really odd singing. Walle thunders through this cut as well, providing tons of melody along with his counterpart Capasso on lead and rhythm, the two combining to trade off solos and leads throughout most of the album. Often I'm reminded of acts like Quo Vadis crossed with Norway's Old Man's Child. A really odd mix but one that really works out quite well.

The end result is an entertaining debut full-length (if 7 cuts is a full album) that sees the band maturing and exploring their diverse background and hopefully finding themselves on the verge of a label contract.

Link: www.malstrom.net

--1Evil1 04.15.07