Artist: A Life Divided
Title: Passenger
Genre: Electro Rock / Metal / Alternative
Release Date: 28th January 2011
Label: AFM Records
Album Review
The German band A LIFE DIVIDED was founded in 2003 and has already released two records, ‘Virtualized’ in 2003 and ‘Far‘ in 2006, success of which can be evaluated by the tours with such band as OOMPH! and EISBRECHER - formations that need no introduction anymore. A LIFE DIVIDED has actually closer relationships with EISBRECHER since singer Jürgen Plangger has been live guitarist of the latter for several years, and Noel Pix, producer and guitarist of EISBRECHER, was involved into the production process of ‘Passenger’.
The album commences with a passionate, headlong and highly emotional ‘Heart On Fire’, electronic verse arrangements of which are interrupted with the sawing guitars in the chorus, while slightly hoarse voice of Jürgen Plangger narrates about unrequited love. In a bit more melancholic ‘Forever’, strings are skilfully intertwined with the heavy guitar flow in the refrain. The next ‘Anyone’ breaks in the middle with a kind of base-line solo that are overlaid by the speech samples. ‘Words’ acquires more gothic feel due to salient key melody. Eruptive ‘Hey You’ vigorously bursts into your ears with its energetic riffs backing the string section. This quite sprightly and pushing song deals with serious questions and urges to awake and start thinking: “Hey you, fool what do you do When everything is slipping out of your hands again Would you say you’re not responsible”. ‘Doesn't Count’ drops the rushing tempo of the previous track and makes way for more electronic sound. A break in the middle of the song, resembling the one in ‘Anyone’, contrasts with very calm and tender singing of JP that follows after it. ‘Save Me’ continues reducing the pace while Jürgen shows more intimate side of his vocals.
But don’t let the synth calmness trick you, the dense guitar sound returns in the refrain, the same way it does in the next ‘Other Side’, coming after delicate synths of the verse. Symphonic intro of the cover of ALPHAVILLE’s ‘Sounds Like A Melody’ bears a resemblance to gothic metal and flourishes into extremely rich, solemn, colourful and expressive anthem. ‘Change’ is probably the heaviest track on the album with harsh riff cascades pour down on the listener and distorted screaming in the refrain, especially by contrast with ‘The End’, that makes a great stand-out of the album presenting a relatively low-tempo, leisurely track with leading string fraction and JP exposing the unexpectedly wide compass of his voice. In the beginning he sings in a deep voice, which, to my mind, sounds worse than his usual manner of singing, but in the chorus his vocals reach the surprising heights. It is very interesting and prominent song, although a bit unfit to general stylistic of the album.
All in all, I felt a strong déjà-vu while listening to some songs and could hardly define the references, as some features were too typical. Nevertheless, ‘Passenger’ is a very solid, qualitative and skilful work, worthy of respect. Besides rich and elaborated sound it possesses meaningful and emphatic lyrics and the only thing it lacks is originality.
Tracklist
01. Heart On Fire
02. Forever
03. Anyone
04. Words
05. Hey You
06. Doesn't Count
07. Save Me
08. Other Side
09. Sounds Like A Melody (Alphaville Cover)
10. Change
11. The End
Line-up
JP - Vocals
Korl - Drums
Toby - Bass
Mike - Guitar
Tony - Guitar
Erik - Programming
Website
http://www.a-life-divided.de/ / www.myspace.com/alifedivided
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 7.5 / 10
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