Empress of the Cold Stars

Heavy metal isn’t what it used to be. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not lamenting that this isn’t the eighties any more. That ship has sailed, and I’ll be content to dig through old crates the rest of my life to find everything that glorious decade has to offer. But let’s be real, even with all the massive revivals we have seen in the popularity of traditional heavy metal, relatively much fewer bands come close to the massively high bar set by the eighties. But since the landscape of metal is so completely overrun by black, death, and various hybrids of post-metal and atmoblack, those of us who live and die by heavy metal will take what we can get. What this means in practice is that most modern heavy metal just isn’t going to do much for us.

Perpetual Rage are a Finnish outfit that are doing their damnedest to keep that torch blazing, but despite their great efforts, they aren’t exactly succeeding. They seem to have a lot of the right things going for them, but in the end, the final package is lopsided and hollow. My biggest frustration with them is not their music though. It’s actually that they completely crush their potential musical delivery with a terrible mix that includes a vocalist that is way too loud and riffs that you have to croon your neck and squint your eyes to hear. On the few songs where I could hear the rhythm guitar, I liked what I heard. But for the majority of the album, I was wincing in pain as the singer’s over-the-top vibrato squelched out everything but the blasting kick drum.

Because of this weird mix, trying to source this was near impossible. After several listens in, I realised that I was having a tremendous difficulty even identifying anything unique about the compositions here. Sure, the vocals are powerful and the kick drum and snare pack a steady punch, but there was nothing to grab hold of for the entire ride, and so instead of finishing and wanting to go back to hear a specific hook, I just found myself rubbing my temples and asking myself, “Why?” The one spot where my cringing muscles got some relaxation was the first half “Mark of Chaos” where even in spite of the overused riff, they actually executed it well, vocals included. Sadly, it doesn’t last the entire song.

This is something that I never thought I would say, but I think the best parts of this album are the guitar solos. The reasoning behind this is simple: during the time when the vocalist is not singing, the band sounds the least offensive. Shoot, they sound good. And even though their solos may not be the best in the world, they are at least executed by competent musicians and mixed well. I hate to have to rate this album so low, especially when I know there are some solid parts buried under the unbelievably terrible mix, but really you don’t want to listen to this album until it can be re-recorded and remixed.

Originally written for The Metal Observer.