Momentum Shift

I must admit the main reason why I got this album was because of Aesgir Mickelson’s drumming, since I am a big fan of his work (especially in Borknagar), but I was really surprised by how this new lineup improved their music and lead them towards their own sound, finally they show some personality.

Let me first make clear that I liked “Strange to Numbers”, the work they released just before “Momentum Shift”, but it lacked something, it just wasn’t very remarkable. Also, it still sounded alike Nevermore (though not as alike as Communic sounds). This new album solves both these issues, and figures as their best effort so far.

In regards of the lineup, the highlights are the drums and the bass, featuring Aesgir Mickelson and Steve DiGiorgio. These guys had worked together before on Vintersorg’s “The Focusing Blur”, and they sounded really great on that album (Vintersorg’s best one IMHO), and they managed to do it again in Scariot. The guitars are good too, with some catchy and heavy riffs (like the ones on Sickening World and on The Universal), sometimes being really great. The weakest point of the band are the vocals, which are not bad by any means, but they take a while to get used to. After hearing this record some times I got used to them and it blended with the rest of the music, but first time I heard it I found kinda strange.

Their sound is a big mix of many metal styles. There are many times when it is clear their thrash vein, but they never sound like regular thrash metal. It is also easy to notice some death metal influences, and, especially the drumming, shows some prog metal too. It is really difficult to classify them, just as it is regarding Nevermore (though, as I said before, now they have their own sound, not just sounding like Nevermore anymore), but this album presents us with a mix of extreme and progressive metal, in the end being not extreme and not displaying musical wankery.

All in all, Scariot managed to achieve their own sound and made a really powerful record, full of great riffs and with one of the best drummers out there in action. If they manage to keep this lineup and carry on their work on this direction they will finally be able to be remembered by their own merits. Definitely a great album that will probably become an underground classic.

Highlights: Redesign Fear, Sickening World and The Universal