Review Summary: While a bit mixed in quality, this side project of Disarmonia Mundi still provides plenty to enjoy.
After a series of excellent melodeath albums with their previous band, Disarmonia Mundi's Ettore Rigotti and Claudio Ravinale decided to form a side project with Elliot Sloan and Neroargento, and the result was The Stranded. The project released one album, 2012's
Survivalism Boulevard, and has been dormant ever since, aside from an appearance on the
Princess Ghibli collaboration series, with Ettore and Claudio going back to Disarmonia Mundi and releasing another album years later with 2015's
Cold Inferno.
Musically, The Stranded don't stray too far away from Disarmonia Mundi, although one might say they're a bit more laid back and accessible in comparison. Ettore and Claudio reprise their previous roles in their previous band, with Ettore handling clean vocals, guitars and drums while Claudio provides unclean vocals. This time around, Neroargento fulfills keyboard duties and Elliot helps to provide additional guitars. Unfortunately, unlike Disarmonia Mundi, there's no prominent guest vocalists like Björn Strid to provide guest vocals, so Disarmonia Mundi or Soilwork fans looking to hear Speed's vocals here will be disappointed in that regard.
But enough comparisons to Disarmonia Mundi, how do The Stranded stand on their own? Well, they know how to make an entrance at least, with opening track "Blood Like Gasoline" providing one of the highlight songs of the album right away, starting with a keyboard line before the rest of the band comes in charging away. This song has it all: tight melodeath riffs, solid drums and a mixture of clean/unclean vocals. There's a few sections where the band slows a bit to mix it up, but all in all, it's a worthy start to the album. Follow-up track "Only Death Can Save Us Now" is much of the same, though I'll say it might have one of my favorite choruses and solos on the album. All of the elements of the band blend together perfectly and solidifies a strong start to the album with this track and the previous one.
Unfortunately, as much of a good first impression as they make, The Stranded are quick to show their flaws. While the third track "Blackout Season" has great acoustic sections towards the beginning and end, the rest of the song is more of a mixed bag. The riffs aren't nearly as interesting as the previous songs, being more akin to something like metalcore, Ettore's vocals leave much to be desired and the choruses lack that punch factor that could've redeemed this track. There's also some spoken word samples that feel out of place and probably might've been better left out. A decent number of songs also have that album filler feeling to them, some of the worst offenders being "Ill Will Future" and "National Breakdown".
All in all,
Survivalism Boulevard is a rollercoaster in quality, but fans of Disarmonia Mundi and modern melodic death metal will certainly find something to enjoy here and there, even if some might consider the project as a whole a bit derivative. If Ettore and Claudio ever decide to revisit this project again, I only hope they'll create something even better to follow it up.
