As some of you may know I'm a rather large fan of the Brazilian power/speed metal group
Hibria. Their first album Defying The Rules is one of the finest albums in the power metal sphere and I enjoyed the follow up The Skull Collectors so much I awarded it the number two slot in my
albums of 2009.
So as you can imagine, when it was announced back in 2010 that bass player, founding member and main songwriter Marco Panichi had departed the band, I was most concerned for their future. Luckily the band found an able bodied replacement for Panichi's dexterous fingers in Benhur Lima. The question mark however remained over whether or not they could replace his song writing talent.
When the official video for lead track
Shoot Me Down was released I was immediately worried by the lack of pace and panache the song displayed. The playing was impressive enough but seemed to be missing the flair that had marked their earlier work. Plus when you have a man in possession of such an incredible vocal range as Iuri Sanson, to waste him on the pedestrian "
Shoot me down, Please shoot me down" chorus is almost a crime in itself. After a few more listens the song grew on me a little but still didn't leave a defining mark.
Still, the single off the album can so often be a disappointment. So I put my worries on hold as I waited for the full
Blind Ride album to work its way into my possession.
Upon gaining hold of the release I tentatively gave it a listen to see if the band could unleash some speeding metal madness on me. I was sadly left in a state of confusion. What unfolded over the next 40 minutes was both at the same time less than I had hoped for but more than I had been dreading.
The most obvious change in direction is the down-tuning of the guitars to give the music a more 'weighty' feeling. Alas, as happens so often when a power metal band drops the tuning, this is accompanied the occasional loss in speed. For
Hibria this is actually effective in places but in others sounds so completely out of character for band who built a reputation on blinding pace.
Indeed the first song proper
Nonconforming Minds is a frustrating listen, the band seem to want to let fly with blistering swiftness but something is holding them back from hitting top gear. The technicality is there, the solo sections prove that, but it's missing that over the top feeling that they used to have.
Some may welcome this and hail the band for a maturing sound. But I'm of the opinion that if "maturity" brings bland groove riffs being injected into songs like
Blinded By Faith, then give me the wild, flailing energy of youth any day.
The album doesn't shake of the shackles until track six, the excellent
"Shelters On Fire". Again, the production isn't quite what I favour, with the guitar tone sounding all wrong for this sort of music. But you can't argue with the chorus or the pounding drum patterns of Eduardo Baldo. The solo section too, is a joy to listen to as Able Camargo and Diego Casper trade off perfectly; it could have done with being a little longer mind you.
This is followed by a song that successfully marries the slower, slightly groovier sections with some trademarked soaring metal dynamics,
Beyond The Regrets Of The Past. Again this one sees Iuri pushing is vocals into his wonderful higher range with great effect.
The semi-ballad
I Feel No Bliss is a solid track which starts off with a worryingly turgid groove riff that thankfully disappears to let the crashing chords and picked guitar parts take it's place lwading to a more balanced song.
Sight Of Blindness is another frustrating one as head-scratchingly bland riffs mix (and are thankfully outnumbered) by the jaw-dropping technicality of other sections.
The album does however end strongly with the storming
Tough Is The Way proving to be a highlight of the album. The perfectly controlled double bass drumming in the verses grabs the attention immediately and the guitar-showmanship impresses as usual.
Closer
Rotten Souls is full of passion and vim and really ends the album on a high note. It shows that perhaps there is something in this maturity business after all as the band's song writing is condensed and more direct than before. This leads them powering their way though a beast of a track in little under five minutes. Of course whether or not this is a good thing is in the mind of the individual.
I for one prefer the seven-minute wonders of the bands earlier work as it felt like they were breaking chains and smashing down boundaries with great abandon. This new direction loses some of that previous freedom and seems to lack a bit of spark at points.
Having said that, bar a few songs this is still a pretty strong album and I think that had this been released by another band I would have possibly been more forgiving of its faults. But as it's a band that I have put great faith in I can't help but feel slightly under-whelmed.
Written by
Stuart Thursday, July 7, 2011
Show all reviews by StuartRatingsStuart: 6/10Members: No members have rated this album yet.
This article has been shown 1161 times. Go to the
complete list.
