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TERAMAZE

(AUSTRALIA)

ARE WE SOLDIERS

(2019)
LABEL:

MASCOT LABEL GROUP

GENRE:

PROGRESSIVE METAL

TAGS:
Easy-Listening, High-pitched vocals
""Are We Soldiers" is a very dense and charged album, lacking a little originality and renewal to really captivate the listener"
DARIALYS (09.07.2019)  
2/5
(0) opinions (0) comment(s)
Founded in 1993, Teramaze is one of the pioneers of Australian progressive metal with bands like Karnivool. The sextet returns this year with its sixth album, an achievement marked by the return to the microphone of the original singer Brett Rerekura in place of Nathan Peachey.

If the Australians' latest work, "Her Halo", had seduced the Music Waves team, this "Are We Soldiers" will not be unanimously accepted. It must be said that for a band claiming to belong to the progressive metal scene, the compositions lack nuances and changes of atmosphere. Teramaze offers many interesting, but exhausting titles in the long run, due to heavy and very (too?) similar atmospheres. Listening to titles like "Fact Resistant Human" and "M.O.N.S.T.E.R.S.", we get stuck in a kind of spiral from which we can't get out, where all the songs are alike, and where differentiating songs from each other is not an easy task.

The effect of fatigue tends to be amplified by the length of the album, approaching 70 minutes, due to the fact that the tracks are often too long. Even the single 'Weight Of Humanity' shows 7 minutes and its length should have been halved. A certain number of titles would therefore have benefited from being more concise to make the whole more digestible and more dynamic. In the same vein, 'Orwellian Times' will recall Periphery's'Garden In The Bones', with an excellent and very sharp production, but again, a shorter duration would have made the piece more interesting and coherent.

The opus finally sounds more like a sweetened metalcore album without throat singing, tinged with alternative FM metal, even pop metal, as on the very radiophonic chorus of 'Weight Of Humanity' strongly and strangely resembling Rihanna's 'Unfaithful'. Dean Wells, guitarist and producer of Teramaze, says himself that he likes to write progressive metal songs and pop songs, which can explain the hybrid side of the band's music.

"Are We Soldiers" still has some significant qualities. For example, there are a few moments of calm, where the purified atmospheres take precedence over the purely metal ones, to finally bring a well-deserved and refreshing break, like the middle of the magnificent "Are We Soldiers" and the one of "Weight Of Humanity". The symphonic aspect of the pieces is also welcome. At the heart of 'Control Conquer Collide', the strings give an intense side to the piece, even a rather epic aspect on 'Depopulate'.

"Are We Soldiers" is therefore a very dense, charged album, lacking a little originality and renewal to really captivate the listener. However, this does not in any way affect the control of the sextet and the perfect and clear production of the disc.
- Official website

TRACK LISTING:
01. Fight Or Flight
02. Are We Soldiers
03. Control Conquer Collide
04. From Saviour to Assassin
05. Orwellian Times
06. M.O.N.S.T.E.R.S.
07. Weight Of Humanity
08. Fact Resistant Human
09. The One Percent Disarm
10. Depopulate

LINEUP:
Andrew Cameron: Basse
Brett Rerekura: Chant
Dean Wells: Chant / Guitares
Jonah Weingarten: Claviers
Nick Ross: Batterie
   
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