The Waking Hour

The Waking Hour is only Age of Artemis’ second album, and with its mature songwriting and crisp production, you’d be forgiven for mistaking the band for mainstays of Brazil’s burgeoning power metal scene from the ‘90s. But let’s not assume “mature songwriting” automatically creates a good or stellar album. For all the folk, progressive, reggae, and melodic metal stylings in The Waking Hour, I can’t help but feel that a lot of the melodies are too clunky and messy and that the album suffers heavily as a result.

As harsh as the term may be, simply put, this album is a “bore-fest”. I will gladly commend it for its superb solos, which always seem to contrast in sound against the tracks they’re featured in, causing the solos to sound separate from the album as a whole. One second you’re listening to a poppy metal chorus and the next you’ll be listening to insane dual harmonies and neoclassical shredding. Opener “Under the Sun” and the title track are great exemplifications of this. It’s quite jarring to hear the disunity between the songs and the solos within, but if it weren’t for the solos, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have anything to applaud outright.

“Broken Bridges” is an example of what the album should have targeted to sound like: fast, heavy, and melodic. It’s a simple formula that works, but Age of Artemis focus entirely too much on throwing varied sounds and genres into their music to the point where the album doesn’t sound cohesive and lone tracks don’t sound cohesive. Something like “Melted in Charisma” has a groove riff thrown in, acoustic guitar-infused verses, and a funky army beat, along with a forgettable chorus to string all of that together, and it ends up in an audio purgatory.

Perhaps a less harsh term to describe The Waking Hour would be “forgettable”. On the second half of the album, “New Revolution” remains as a standout track among the wreckage, but the clutter that is “Childhood” and “Exile” is off-putting, to say the least. It doesn’t help that we get two ballads in fast succession either (or three if you’re listening to the CD version).

I’ve never been a fan of people using the genre, “pop metal”, but it seems mildly appropriate in this case. The only caveat here is that nothing is catchy. Age of Artemis stay too safe for too long. The songwriting is tedious and unrewarding to the listener, and the singing by Alírio Netto is unmemorable and subdued. Everything here sounds like it should be sub-par B-sides to major singles, not the vast majority of a sophomore album. The Waking Hour has one good quality to it, and it’s the solos, but no string of solos can ever redeem this car wreck.

Another term I don’t like to use: sophomore slump.

Written for The Metal Observer