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Album reviews:
Here you'll find all album reviews sorted on publish date, descending. Latest published items are on top.
Note: We don't give a mark to: MCDs, DEMOs, Compilations and Live albums.
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| Page: Show all reviews |
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 | 01. Intro (Instrumental)
02. Ripples
03. Do I Dare?
04. Remorse
05. Between Black & White
06. Catatonic Coma
07. Torn Apart
08. Traces Inside
09. Reflections
10. The Purpose
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Musically 2010 starts amazing. New Year is just over and a cd of a new band Aspera arrives in by mailbox. This young band is from Norway. The metal atmosphere in Scandinavian is very good over the last years. Aspera is no exception to that. This rather young band, average age of the members is 20 years, have released their debut album on the InsideOut label. Actually with their album Ripples Aspera deserves the support of this huge progressive metal label. Ripples can be compared with Pagan’s Mind, Symphony X and so on; this is not exaggerated.
The lineup of Aspera is Atle Pettersen (Vocals), Robin Ognedal (Guitars), Rein T. Blomquist (Bass), Joachim Strøm Ekelund (Drums) and Nickolas Main Henriksen (Keyboards). Ripples is best described as a melodic metal band with progressive influences. Sometimes the emphasis lies on metal the other times on progressive metal. The production is great; the album is produced by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Paradise Lost, Hammerfall or Symphony X). There are bands that have to deal with less producers. Aspera however deserves to be supported by people with such a state of art.
Ripples consist out of 10 songs; the vocals of Petterson sometimes do remind me of Jeff Keith of Tesla. Actually Petterson sounds more powerful. Ripples has no bad moments; the album takes almost 55 minutes with highlights. The title song has different influences; metal, progressive, symphonic and is completed with terrific solos. It sounds as a band that plays together for years and years. Do I Dare? has superb bass riffs; completed progressive drumming and great melodies this song also is impressive. There are even songs that transcend the high level of the album. Between Black & White is such a song; Progressive, accessible metal; huge instrumental part with different styles and powerful vocals. Torn Apart is the ballad of the album, a mix of ballad and power ballad. The album ends with The Purpose; the heaviest song of the album.
With Ripples the band releases an amazing album; at the same time it advances the expectations for the album in future. But for this moment who cares. Run to your local cd store and BUY THIS ALBUM!!!!
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Rating: 93 /100 | |
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