Band:	Awakening Sun
Album:	Sold Out
Style:	Melodic death metal
Release date:	December 2011

01. Brutal War
02. Own Master
03. Tomorrow Might Never Come
04. Blind Sheep
05. No More Blood
06. Impostors
07. Whirl Of Death
08. Under Control
09. Chimera
10. Awaken The Sun

When it comes to standard death metal, the term songwriting is more important than in many other genres. No one asks for originality, people who play death metal riffs must know how to work with their instruments and the production is focused on brutal blasting in nearly every album. Therefore, it is quite easy for an album to fail and now I'd like to present this wonderful example, Sold Out by Awakening Sun.

What you get here is death metal in its most typical forms, containing extremely fast riffs, blast beaten drums, riding bass lines and deep dark vocals. There also are slow, doom influenced passages, some rare melodic leads and solos. Now it's mainly two things which are really bad on this record, namely vocals and songwriting. I better start with the first problem. It's not as if the vocals were not fitting; they attempt to be deep guttural death vocals. But they are not. The growlings have some amateur touch, like the singer does it only as a hobby. There is actually nothing professional in it. I have heard the same talent already in an unknown black metal release that came out somewhere during the late 90's, but there it felt much better. And so is my first advice to the band: Get a professional vocalist!

The second problem I've already spoken of is the bad songwriting. It is not as if there were only shitty riffs, there are actually some good ones, but some passages are way too generic while others are so dissonant that you think it's the most nasty doom metal you've heard in years. Best example for a most generic riff can be found in the track "No More Blood" at 0.16 and somewhere later in the song. It sounds like it was stolen from a practice CD for guitar newbies and the only appropriate question here is: "Are you fucking serious with that???" But other songs are bad examples too, after the first minute you just stop listening. Ok, second bit of advice: Try it with communal songwriting, so various ideas can replace the boring 48 minute song that this album is.

But after all criticism, there are also two positive sides worth being mentioned. First one is the guitars, especially the lead guitars, there is much talent in it. Badass riffs in the style of Amon Amarth are played very clean and accurate, solos are included and well played too. Second thing is the production, which is a blast when you see that this band is yet unsigned. Only stigma on it is that it's maybe too crystal clear, what about some dirty tune in it at least? Finally I could pick a song which is the highlight in my eyes, because it's at least good, and the name is "Tomorrow Might Never Come." I like the chorus and it's a bit varied from the other tracks.

To conclude, this album isn't good. Even a death metal maniac might avoid it, but as always there will be people who like it because of some reasons that are beyond my thoughts. Last word to Awakening Sun: Think about the advice above and do it better next time!