Persuader is a young, but not completely new band (formed in 1997). They were initially signed to Loud'N'Proud records, which released one album with the band,
The Hunter, which is practically impossible to find this day, after the demise of LNP. In 2002 the band won the contest
Young Metal Gods, a competition where seven Metal Magazines wanted to find some bands that could possibly be the Metal heroes of the future. The prize was a record deal with Noise records, which now releases
Persuader's second album,
Evolution Purgatory.
Though the music grabbed me from the start, it cannot be described as exceedingly catchy, in the sense that
Persuader doesn't just use the old "verse/chorus/verse/chorus repeated endlessly" recipe. I had to listen to each song several times before I understood the magic of each of them, which makes this album an exciting journey of discovery, where well known elements mix with lots of surprises! Very interesting song structures, without sacrificing the catchy parts or memorable choruses.
Evolution Purgatory is a very fast paced and energetic release, and one could fear, that this certain drive could get lost along the way, or that the high tempo would get trivial, but actually the record is very consistent, and leaves me in an almost uplifted mood!
Persuader reminds me a lot about old
Blind Guardian (think the first two albums), in a harder more Thrashed version.
Apart from the fact that singer Jens Carlsson bears strong assembly to one Hansi Kürsch, the vocal arrangements also leads my thoughts to
Blind Guardian, being at times almost bombastic with more than one layer. However,
Persuader is more brutal and aggressive, and these bombastic elements are never overused, making the general outline of the record a fiercer one!
Many parallels to Thrash can be found, groovy, crunchy guitars, double bass rhythms and ultra brutal, fast drums. Very impressive, and I think
Persuader have something unique to their sound!
The album opens with
Strike Down, and with its
hard riffs, groovy feeling and strong melodic chorus, this track grabs you by the heart right away!
Persuader uses some sort of distortion effect in this song, which I don't really see the point in, maybe they try to experiment with some sort of "modern sound". It doesn't' really ruin anything, but I'm happy they didn't use it more.
There's some kind of classic Heavy Metal feeling over
Sanity Soiled. A very classic guitar riff and a strong melody line, cool groovy bass work and a solid choir like vocal arrangement, all make this song a winner, and one of my favorites on the album! The song structure is pretty clever with changes in rhythm and speed.
Masquerade starts out very melodic, with a catchy riff, sounds typically power Metal, but then it breaks out in a very fast part before the memorable and beautiful chorus. Probably the most melodic track off the record, without ever loosing the nerve that the whole album posseses, but still providing a little variation in the otherwise pretty hectic sound.
Turn To Dust is the most Thrash like song on the album, and also great! The way the song changes character around the middle from groovy Thrash rhythm to an ultra melodic mid piece is again something which increases the value, it sounds great and keeps the interest of the listener!
Passion/Pain has a cool groove, and using a keyboard in moderation and in the background most of the time adds depth and atmosphere to the song. The guitars are used in an almost Iron Maiden'ish fashion at some points, and again we see this perfect union of melodic elements (vocals, keyboard, guitar) and hardness (bass, drums, also guitars)! Great!
Raise Hell has a great variation between the very hard main riff and more harmonic parts. It blasts ahead, and then follows very melodic vocals and beautiful guitarparts. The track is very catchy without ever getting predictable and is well structured. One of the best tunes, with a wild drive and very high energylevel!
To The End has a Thrashy profile, very brutal, and then comes an almost bombastic choir in the chorus and creates a whole new dimension! Again combining many elements in a really good way.
Melody and aggession in perfect union!
Hmmm, finding anything critical to say is hard, but well, I would say that I somehow miss some longer guitar solos. The guitar players clearly know what they are doing and it starts out great each time but when you expect to get a longer demonstration of their talents, its' like the solo stops before it has really begun.
Apart from that, I can't really find something negative to say. The album is very consistent and contains no fillers!
So, is this the future Gods of Metal? Could very well be, if they continue this strong in the future!
Written by
Nina Thursday, February 5, 2004
Show all reviews by NinaRatingsNina: 8/10Members: 9/10 - Average of 1 ratings.
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This is an incredible album. Released just after after Blind guardian began their demise a... · Read more · |
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