The Eye of the Beholder

If I had to name my personal label of the year 2018 I would probably end up with the name Roll The Bones. Lyra’s Legacy’s “Prisoner” and the latest Greydon Fields album “Tunguska” grabbed a place within my YE top 10 showing that music in this age can be heavy and traditional without sacrificing modern production standards and clever songwriting. Label head Gregor Vogt (also leading Greydon Fields) is not a fan of being lazy and shows no signs of slowing down. The first representative 2019 of his vision for Roll The Bones putting out intelligent metal music is the second album by the NRW based band Pandorium following their debut “The Human Art of Depression”.

The music is labelled as “progressive thrash” and while I agree that there are elements of both styles this might be a bit misleading. This is not the kind of muddle-headed techno thrash full of complex polyrhythms which needs a lot of spins before an average listener is able to grasp what is going on. The trademark riffs are quite traditional being more in line with classic bands like Megadeth or Anthrax. There are quite a few tempo and rhythm changes and some of the soloing sections are very impressive. However, the uplifting nature and the fantastic hooks should make this album easily enjoyable from start to finish for most metal heads.

The songwriting is on a very high level. Pandorium expertly create different moods ranging from epic and catchy to slightly melancholic. The combination of hefty chords and such moodier and more melodic sections remind of bands like Nevermore or the shockingly underrated Italian veterans Eldritch. Break downs and short solo parts are used to link different pieces making the structure of each song stringent and comprehensible. The flow of the album is great and because of that a nice atmosphere is built soaking the listener into the music.

Before writing my own review I checked out the web and while the album as a whole got pretty good ratings the vocals have been kind of a point for criticism. I have to disagree here as I believe that the voice of singer Fadil absolutely fits the instrumentation. While it might not be the most diverse vocal job ever done his tone is perfectly suitable for this kind of music. Any kind of screaming or overdramatic interpretations would have hurt the overall picture and his stoic delivery is just working great in this context.

The production is nearly flawless. The guitars are crunchy and the drums are punchy without sounding too sterile. The overall mix is crystal clear with each instrument having enough room to breathe. To be honest I expected nothing less from a release by this label so I am glad to report that Gregor and his crew continue where they left off in 2018.