Review Summary: Among the new kids on the block of Sweden's new wave of metal.
Sweden is a household name when it comes to metal. The early 90's ushered in a new age of metal at the time. Melodic death metal was being played all over the country by countless musicians constantly developing their unique styles and giving America a run for their money. In Flames, At the Gates, Meshuggah, Dark Tranquillity, and Dissection to name a few, started a movement which grew rapidly, and still remain's fresh in the minds of seasoned metalheads and the youth of today. A new wave of swedish metal recently broke out, lead by Scar Symmetry, Blinded Colony, and now Sonic Syndicate. With a slew of young, up and coming bands, Sweden is ready to make their presence known that they havent taken a hiatus since the golden days, and are back for another round of heavy metal.
Roland Johansson- Clean Vocals
Richard Sjunnesson- Harsh Vocals
Roger Sjunnesson-Guitars
Robin Sjunnesson-Guitars
Karin Axelssom-Bass
John Benqtssom- Drums
In late 2005, Nuclear Blast Records had held a battle of the bands type contest. With thousands of band pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into their music, only one stood out from amongst the ashes. Sonic Syndicate, with their killer grooves, fast paced rhythms, and energetic vocals, won the competition and prompty latched on with Nuclear Blast. They released their debut Eden Fire shortly after. Realizing the faults on their last cd, they hired a clean singer to add more flexibility in their music, altering their music to a more commercial sound. Only Inhuman is chock full of fist pumping melodies, fast paced riffing, anthemic choruses, and unabashed praise of their forefathers of metal. What they lack in originallity make up in strong song writing skills.
Sonic Syndicate play high octane furious tempo music heavily influenced from the Gothenburg sound as well as the American metalcore scene. The heavy verse to clean chorus is present throughout the disk, except for the ballad, Enclave. Now, they all play their instruments well resulting in a fresh exciting sound that will gather many fans, but they are heavily lacking in originality, as the formula is pretty basic all around. It seems to me that they really didnt try as hard as they should have to make this a mind blowing experience. Instead this is quite an infectiousy catchy CD chock full of melodic hooks bringing Soilwork to mind, all over the place giving in to Rolands clean vocals merging with Richard's unimpressive metalcore influenced growls.
Roger and Richard play their guitars with relative ease, holding down the rhythm with their heavy groove and melodic riffing attack paving the way for the vocals. John is rather good on his drum set, setting the pace of the album with well played drum patterns scattered about, as the guitars fly by. Bass is nowhere to be found, as the pretty hot four string slinger just stands there and smiles. One good thing Sonic Syndicate did do was, hiring Roland to the mix. His vocals are very strong producing some of the catchiest music ive heard in a long time. Lyrically this album dosen't have any type of spiritual message, and so just typical metalcore based imagery to be found. Richard, the third brother balances out the singing with his growling. Although most of the time unremarkable, he does have some highlights as found in the opener "Afetrmath".
Fans of metal or any type of rock music will find this enjoyable ,as nothing really brutal ever makes it's presence known. Always a fun listen you can play with your friends, or rock out too during church. Sonic do the job well with their lighter based style of Swedish metal, further impressing the younger and more feebly minded people of today. All in all a great cd to listen to, nothing too technical to sap you of your strength. Hopefully in the future, Sonic decide to take one step further and further develop their sound so they can stand among the crowd instead of being part of it.
Pros: Extremely Catchy
Easily Digestable
Strong Vocal performance
Cons: Lacking Originality
Nonexistent Bass
