dEMOTIONAL
Tarassis

This Swedish band seems to have slipped on the caps-key when sending in their name to the label. They have released one album before this one that is called Tarassis, the first one was State in Denial and featured a pretty ugly cover artwork. I think that first album didn’t do too much for the musical world of metalcore or Swedish melodic death metal if you like as it sounded very similar to most of the bands in that kind of genre. I think judging by the first album they released that they do have a lot to improve and one thing I could see when I got this album was that they had improved their exterior, the cover art looks much better.

Musically there isn’t much of a difference between this and the prior album compared stylistically. It is quite typical of the genre and especially the Swedish bands in that said genre. Think of bands like Dead by April, In Flames, Sonic Syndicate, Scar Symmetry and whatever else you can think of in this kind of modern melodic death metal genre. Clean and harsh vocals, they balance the melodies and the harshness in a way that is very similar to what most other bands do. The sound is very typical of the genre and they do not really offer anything that stands out, sets them apart from those bands I just mentioned earlier in this paragraph. It is a typical album of the genre, and I would say that it lacks a bit of variation as it feels a tad long despite being only 43 minutes long.

So, if you were hoping for something different, something that stands out from the genre in general, I think you will be disappointed as it sounds kind of like most other stuff. The risk they stand is that their album will be very quickly forgotten in the noise that is this genre; the album lacks something that grabs the attention of the seasoned reviewer who is not a fan of any particular genre. I don’t think that it is a bad album, the songs are quite good and they do what they do fairly well, the problem just is that most other bands in the genre does that as well and they are not unique enough or good enough to stand out amongst all these other bands of the genre. But I do think they have taken a tiny step forward, not a big one but if we are kind we can at least state that they are taking a step in the right direction. And I think that they are a good band, they just need to find their own feet.

Ten tracks and none of them really stand out, and the lyrics are a bit silly and the style a bit predictable but for those of you who enjoy this kind of music I am sure that this is a nice addition to your collection. The rest of us can safely move on to something a bit less typical and a bit more exciting, lets hope for a bigger and more bold step next time around.

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