Nailgun
Desolation

German Nailgunners are releasing their third album, one that brings my mind to Iron Maiden considering the Nailgun name and speaking of them as Nailgunners. That is one conclusion as far fetched as most stuff my brothers says when he is making a joke, or when a tiger asks a demon “why the long face” it just isn’t very easy to figure out the connection. Desolation is the name of this quintet’s third album; it has a cover art that has the look of that desolation which is always cool. I think it is a decent looking artwork that might persuade someone to give the album a shot. But what about this band and this album, is it the desolation of a gunned down Nailgunner?

Musically there are many ideas of what kind of music this is, thrash says the label, groove says some silly reviewer, Nevermore - Sentenced-hybrid says someone else and the list goes on with many suggestions. So are they hard to describe? One might think so considering the statements from different people but it isn’t really that different. It is powerful melodic metal with some touches of the thrash and the groove but all in all it is really akin towards the standard heavy metal if you want a genre to describe it with. It is melodic and the tempo is mostly in the middle of the range, the singer has a powerful voice almost like he is preaching or chanting. Strong presences in the vocals, the riffs are heavy and the rhythm section quite static. It isn’t that different from most other stuff in the metal genre, they sound quite similar to many bands and if you were to namedrop some names it would include more or less any band in the heavy-/power-/melodic-/and a fem more- metal genre.

The album is not particularly varied and its past fifty-minute playing time is too long. The album also lacks that magical focal point that fires a nail into the eye of the listener making him or her take notice of what is going on anywhere on that album, the production is otherwise good but they have taken a cacophony of influences and turned them into something very neutral. It is perhaps too coherent. I think that no one will appoint this his or her favourite album, and neither will anyone appoint it an album that they hate; no one can really dislike this album. And no one can really like it; it is like a metal version of The Shawshank Redemption movie, one that everyone likes but no one really loves.

Tyrant’s Fall is the only song that catches something of my attention when I listen to the album, the rest of the songs are just being played through without me taking much notice of them. I think that the album is good, a bit desolate perhaps but good nonetheless. At the same time I doubt that anyone will really take it to heart but at the same time I also think that no one will hate it. It is a solid album, and much like a Nailgun firing a nail into the face of someone meaning that you will know what you can expect.

HHHHHHH