There has been a desperate shortage of good Scottish Metal bands for too long now. Think about it, in the past few years how may albums by Scottish Metal artists have you bought? You may have an
Alestorm record in your collection but that's probably about it.
Thankfully all is not lost for my homeland, tired of being a neglected part of the UK metal scene there are bands up and down the country fighting valiantly to escape the tightly bound chains of the dreaded "Local Scene".
Syth are one of the bands at the forefront of this struggle and not without reason. The band has been playing with various different line-ups for many years now and all looked lost when they broke up after their self released Warzone album.
Thankfully the band reformed with a now stable line up of Niall "Legend" Russell on vocals/guitar, Baz Fitzsimmons on guitar and the rhythm section of Allen Bell on bass and Mark Connelly providing the drums.
The results of this reformation can be heard on the bands new release
The Reckoning. It continues the Heavy/Power Metal path the band were originally heading down. And right from the off it's obvious that a lot of painstaking effort has gone into making this album nothing less than a triumphant return.
The debut album Warzone was a
mightily impressive collection of stunningly crafted metal anthems. But with one of the main songwriter from that period of the band now departed there was doubt in my mind whether or not the band could match their previous high standards.
Any lingering fears for The Reckoning were immediately washed away with the opening track
Out Of The Night. It's a powerful, punchy opener which instantly recalls memories of the start of all those great
Iron Maiden albums with a Nicko-esque drum fill into the galloping main riff. The vocal melodies in this one are so strong you will find you humming them for hours afterwards .Oh and you want an anthemic chorus do you? Well this tracks got an absolute cracker.
Like its predecessor, this is a self release which means the production is not quite as crystal clear as you would like it to be. It's a strangely quiet record that needs to be turned up a few notches louder than usual and the sound is slightly compressed. However there are many points like the drum and bass lead opening section in
March Of The Dead that will still knock you off your feet with their power.
In fact, I should at this point make an issue over how wonderful the musicianship of this release is. Every single instrument is allowed their chance to shine, there are points where the lead guitar work will astound you as you wonder how exactly Baz managed to get his fingers flying fast enough to hit all the notes.
The drumming is incredibly inventive with fills flying out the speakers at every given opportunity. And as for the bass, there are so many clever bass parts layered throughout this album that it will take you a good few listens to get your head round them.
Niall's singing style marks another unique trait of the band, his approach is much more mid-range than your standard metal singer with no falsetto to be heard anywhere. This actually works much better than you would expect as it's clear he puts every ounce of effort into each vocal line.
One of the tracks were he really gets to show his strengths is on semi-ballad
"Ghosts of The Past". The song starts out with a gentle arpeggio with Niall's pained vocals painting a picture of lost love. The song builds and builds in truest epic-ballad fashion and then really takes off just after the three minute mark with harmonised tempo change then transforms into a crunching riff with some angry, emotional singing The hook line of
"No, you cant escape the ghosts of the past" is screamed with a cathartic passion which won't fail to impress.
For me the albums centre piece is the spectacular
Battle Rages, it starts with an almost folky tapped guitar part before flying straight into a fast paced riff. It's a perfectly constructed nine minute number, which contains some of the best of that astonishing soloing I was talking about earlier. In fact, there so many fantastic moments in this track I could spent the rest of the review writing about them. Needless to say its one of the most thrilling songs I have heard in a long time.
You would think by this point the band might have run out of clever tricks or soaring choruses. But
Shadow on The Shore is hear to prove you wrong, there is a quite frankly worryingly fast tempo change around three minutes that will leave your head spinning and if your lucky you may just recover in time for the next track
Three Remain.
In an album packed with quality Three Remain more than holds its own as it provides a defiant, upbeat moment before the albums closer. The band had been worried that moments of the song were a little too poppy but I can assure you its nothing of the sort. It's got the kind of stirring chorus that metal was made for and even contains a cheeky nod to Maiden's Wasted Years in one of its instrumental sections.
The last song of the record is a beast that goes by the name of
The Siege, this is the point where the band set free the remainder of their progressive urges and let rip.
It opens with a sombre keyboard section under laid by the sounds of a battle being fought then let's fly with one final burst of aggression. It tells the tale of the bloody Battle of Badajoz which took place in Spain in 1812 and is told from both the perspective of the French and British armies. Telling this sort of tale within the Metal framework works for the likes of Jon Schaffer's
Iced Earth and
Syth manage to tap that epic vein without ever losing track of the all important riffs that keep the song alive and kicking.
It's not often you come across an album this ingenious from a band that have yet to be snapped up by a label but this is one of those cases. I can only wonder at what this band could be capable of let loose in a studio with a major label recording budget behind them. Perhaps one day we will find out, but until then I suggest you give the bands website a look and order a copy of The Reckoning. I think you may just like it.
Written by
Stuart Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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