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Strider - Gearheart - One Man's Path From Sorrow To Redemption review



Reviewer:
7.4

1 user:
7
Band: Strider
Album: Gearheart - One Man's Path From Sorrow To Redemption
Release date: 2007


01. Dark Clouds
02. No Rest
03. Shining Twice
04. Skinless
05. Gearheart
06. Perseverance Pays
07. Eternal Secondcomer
08. Green Eyes
09. North Star

Gearheart is definitely one of the most special records I have heard since a while. From all the reviews I have written so far, this is the one in which I have the most strongly mixed feelings about and this is the one for which I had to think longest about what I could write about it. Power metal is a style of music that is clogged up by similar bands. Actually you could split it into three; the American type of power metal which is quite close to heavy metal and sometimes also bordering with thrash, then you have the "standard" type of European power metal like Hammerfall and Edguy and then you have the Finnish type of keyboard oriented power metal like Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica. These three types easily cover over 95% of power metal. Yet there are also bands who step out of line and take the whole style to a new level. Strider is one of these bands.

Their music can be described as a mix between Judas Priest (minus the high screams) and Children Of Bodom with a few touches of electronica music. The Italians use mainly harsh vocals, however also some deep clean vocals. Gearheart is also mixed so that the guitars are more in the background while the keyboards and drums are in the foreground, something else which is quite untypical of power metal. You can hear the drums very clearly throughout the whole CD. Luckily the drumming does have quite some variation in it, however it's still something you'll have to get used to when you listen to this album for the first time. The electronica elements I mentioned mainly lie in the keyboard melodies which sound really "electronic" most of the time. With the drumming in the foreground and the electronical keyboard melodies backing it up the music occasionally reminds more of drum'n'bass than of metal, but this is only in a few places on the CD.

I had some difficulties with this album the first two times I listened to it, but it started growing on me more and more. To be completely honest however, I almost believe that while there will be metalheads half-worshipping this album, most metalheads will discard this album because of the electronic sounding keyboard. After all heavy metal and techno aren't known to be best friends. However, for those of you out there with an open mind towards music; I can't guarantee that you'll like it, because it really is a very special album, but do give this a try. This is definitely something new and original in the scene, that alone is reason enough that they deserve it, it isn't the only reason however. Just listen to the album and you'll see what I mean.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 7
Originality: 10
Production: 7

Written by Bas | 07.05.2008




Comments

Comments: 2   Visited by: 22 users
11.05.2008 - 07:31
enumaelis

sounds interesting
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http://enumaelis.blogspot.com/
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11.05.2008 - 20:55
Rating: 7
Bas
Retired Staff
Written by enumaelis on 11.05.2008 at 07:31

sounds interesting

it is really,
interesting doesn't have to mean you'll like it of course, but do listen into it if they sound interesting to you
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BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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