Artist: Starkill
Title: Virus Of The Mind
Genre: Metal
Release Date: 20th October 2014 (EU)
Label: Century Media Records
Album Review
Founded in 2008 under the name BALLISTIKA, then changing it to MASSAKREN before finally settling for a name - of course we’re talking about STARKILL from Chicago, Illinois! The band almost suddenly appeared with full force at the end of 2012 when they signed to Century Media Records, releasing their debut album ’Fires Of Life’ in 2013. Their newest work, ’Virus Of The Mind’, came out in late 2014 and the quartet around vocalist and guitarist Parker Jameson had high expectations to measure up to since their debut had definitely made an impact.
The album opens with fast paced violins in ’Be Dead Or Die’, which perfectly blend into the heavy and even faster pace of the song itself. Heavy drumming and guitars lead through the four and a half minutes, harsh growls mix with melodic keyboard lines and round it up to a flawless intro. ’Winter Desolation’ is not as heavy as its predecessor, more Melodic Death Metal, but it provides some absolutely heavy riffs combined with a few ARCH ENEMY-like solos to bang your head to. Variety in the vocals here: Parker Jameson sings and growls both in this one. Following as third track, ‘Breaking The Madness’ manages to blow you away from the very first second on. Have fun head-banging for an almost solid four minutes!
The title track, ‘Virus of the Mind’, is a lot slower but has catchy riffs with solos and keyboards inserted in various places throughout the song. Here and there it reminds of CHILDREN OF BODOM or WINTERSUN. For a title track though it lacks a bit of character in my opinion. Luckily ‘Skyward’ manages to balance the slowness of ‘Virus of the Mind’ again, including clean vocals successfully into the synergy of guitars and keyboard and giving the listener something to headbang again after the short pause during the title track. ‘Before Hope Fades’, one of the singles of the album, brings in a hint of NIGHTWISH and CHILDREN OF BODOM again. It’s a really interesting change in style and much unexpected after all that heaviness and racing drums. Song number seven, ‘Into Destiny’, brings back said racing drums in the Symphonic Black Metal style of DIMMU BORGIR; the clean vocals though seem to be a little out of place, somehow as if they not belonged to the song at all.
‘God of This World’ is a real hammer. Super-fast beats (how in the world is drummer Spencer Weidner not passing out after playing these?!), low growls, memorable keyboard lines and creative bass techniques are making it a definite highlight on the album. Every second of this track is pure energy! Following this bundle of energy is ’My Catharsis’, which is a little less heavy and has some catchy guitar riffs and more impressive guitar solos to offer. It reminds a lot of the older works of STARKILL, combining melodic death metal guitars and drums with harsh growls and still having a hint of folk and power metal inspired music from earlier. The last track is titled ‘Convergence’ and sets a perfect end to an almost flawless album: it’s a lot slower than the predecessor but heavier, a good mix of growls and cleans and the guitar work is on point. One could barely wish for a better way to say ‘The End’!
STARKILL’s ‘Virus of the Mind’ in a nutshell: it blows you away. I really can’t say anything more than that it’s almost perfect, every track seems to fit to the other like links to a chain. And with only minor weaknesses in two songs one can’t argue that this is a real fine piece of work; STARKILL have managed to tie in with their great first album without a problem.
Tracklist
01. Be Dead or Die
02. Winter Desolation
03. Breaking the Madness
04. Virus of the Mind
05. Skyward
06. Before Hope Fades
07. Into Destiny
08. God of This World
09. My Catharsis
10. Convergence
Line-up
Parker Jameson – guitar, vocals, songwriting
Spencer Weidner – drums
Tony Keathley – guitar
Shaun Andruchuk – bass
Website
https://www.facebook.com/StarkillOfficial/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 10
Total: 9.5 / 10
Comments powered by CComment