Sorrow, The - The Sorrow

Artist: The Sorrow
Title: The Sorrow
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 29th October 2010
Label: Drakkar Records (Sony)



Album Review

Fans are always sceptical when a band starts putting out an album year after year. Usually bands that do this are either rushing ideas or not touring, so they have a lot of time to use their creativity to their full potential. THE SORROW’s last album was seen in 2009 after their 2007 debut, which was an excellent melodic Metalcore piece of art. Now, they’re releasing their self titled album. Feels a bit rushed, doesn’t it? Fortunately, the whole album is just as solid as their last. The band continues down the melodic death metal road taking cuts from Swedish death metal acts such as SONIC SYNDICATE and SOILWORK as far as vocal styles and guitar melodies go. Despite the entire ‘scream verses, clean chorus’ formula, each track is heavily engaging with its smooth sound and thick, fuzzy Metalcore influence to add a bit of technical grace to the music.

The first thing that fans will notice with ‘The Sorrow’ is that it maintains a great balance between clean and fuzzy as far as sound goes. On tracks like ‘Crossing Jordan’ there is a clean, melodic sound to it whereas on ‘Draped In Misery’ there is that thicker, sludge-laden atmosphere that usually drenches Metalcore. However, due to how most of the music sounds, this is strictly melodic death metal territory simply because there is so much of a SOILWORK resemblance, especially in the vocals. They have that distinct, similar roar in them that is uncanny. As far as the clean vocals go, they are more along the lines of ALL THAT REMAINS.

Even though the harsher vocals dominate the clean by about three more tracks, the clean ones sound best on a track like ‘Farewell’, one of the more melodic tracks of the album. On the other hand, there are more than enough head banging worthy tracks. ‘You Are My Nemesis’ features a great mix of chugging, fuzzy rhythms and softer, keyboard sounding guitar notes. Even though this is truly a melodic track, one can’t deny that when the screaming comes in they don’t feel the energy. ‘Grief Machine’ is the heaviest track on the album because of its fast paced guitar rhythms and drumming; most of the other tracks feature lengthier notes and solos so there is an even flow throughout the song. This one is just balls out fury.

Overall the whole album does the band justice by leaving listeners with a decent load of melodic death metal. It’s a lengthy album- basically an hour - so there’s no feeling of being cheated as far as time goes. Despite the ‘The Sorrow’ having a constant sound throughout the album, each track seems a bit more varied, whether it is how the song begins or the vocal presence throughout the album. THE SORROW was playing things pretty close to the chest by getting this album out so quickly, but the steady song writing and creativity fortunately hasn’t left them. Will they be able to keep combining quick releases with new ideas that won’t wear out? We’ll see.


Tracklist

01. Affliction (5:01)
02. Crossing Jordan (4:57)
03. The Weight Of The World (4:06)
04. Suffering Quotes (4:22)
05. Heart Of A Lion (4:03)
06. Farewells (5:41)
07. You Are My Nemesis (4:18)
08. Paragon In Charity (5:07)
09. Draped In Misery (5:07)
10. Grief In Machinery (3:55)
11. Engraved In Our Hearts (5:03)
12. Facing The End (4:06)
13. Reach For The Skies (5:17)


Line-up

Mathias "Mätze" Schlegl – Vocals, Guitars
Andreas "Andi" Mäser – Guitars
Tobias "Tobi" Schädler – Bass
Dominik "Dewey" Immler – Drums


Website

http://www.thesorrow.net/


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 8
Sound: 7
Total: 7.5 / 10


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