DUSKMACHINE
The Final Fall
(Twilight Vertrieb)
49:25min

This is the debut album of the German Thrash-outfit around drummer Randy Black, who in the past was already beating around the bush for acts like PRIMAL FEAR or ANNIHILATOR. And this pretty much sets the tone here since the music on “The Final Fall” has much more in common with thrashy Power Metal than with what the typical suspects established as Thrash Metal in the golden 80s. Especially NEVERMORE come to mind more than once when listening to this record. Lyrically the album is based on some gothic novels by German author E.T.A. Hoffmann which is definitely something out of the ordinary, although one may argue if this kind of music is suitable to fit the creepy atmosphere of these stories. As all the involved seem to be long-time pro’s you don’t need to worry about the musicianship here. What pretty much ruins the record for me are the vocals. Of course it would be unrealistic to demand the charismatic performance of someone like Warrel Dane but vocalist Hagen Hirschmann is failing to convince the listener both with his aggressive shouts and more melodic attempts. And since the vocals play quite an important role in this genre, this is doing some serious harm to an otherwise absolutely solid record. As they say: “It’s the singer, not the song”… www.duskmachine.com.

Torsten GrĂ¼ndig

Torsten GrĂ¼ndig

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