Methane - The Devil's Own (Review)

Southern metal from Sweden - a few years ago I would take it as a joke. But today in my entry a band from Sweden and USA.

My Rating: 75/100

Source - amazon.com

I doubted for a long time whether it was worth writing a review for this album - it would be difficult for me to describe such release, and already a year and a half have passed since the release. Nevertheless, I will do it. Here we hear thrash / groove metal. This is all that can be said about the genre, since it's difficult to find something unique here. Nevertheless, audition left a pleasant impression.

It's noticeable here that the composer did not try to show something very complicated. He just did what he can do. No show-off's, just honest skill. Here is a fairly logical choice of methods for solving an artistic tasks without surprises. Actually, the result speaks for itself - during listening you want to drink beer and shake your head. Also, influence of classical metal bands is very noticeable here. This is expressed in a classic guitar tone - a tube amplifier with skreamer. Someone might say that this has already become boring - in 80s there were enough bands with such sound. But this particular sound has a special charm.

The picture is supplemented by vocalist. In general, vocal parts are performed well - a lot of experience is felt. Yes, vocalist is not always perfect - in 5th track the performance of the vocal parts is somehow too cautious. You can also notice that much attention was paid to lyrics.

Instrumental parts are not very difficult - most of the emotions are caused by the lyrics. Nevertheless, there is something to say about instrumental parts. Guitar sounds cool. It would seem nothing complicated, but it causes great emotions. It's noticeable that there are many tracks for guitar and for each track, the re-amp was done differently (for example, more gain on second guitar). Also in one of the tracks on different tracks the vibrato is performed in different ways. Such pleasant little things leave a good impression of composition as a whole. You can also notice a very intense rhythm section. However, for such music is characterized by a high-intensity rhythm section. But this is not the usual bass drum's grinding in the style of Dave Lombardo. There is a very large variety of drum patterns. Yes, drummer is a cool dude.

Guys know how to do something - they do it. And they do it well. Yes, there are not enough very many shades in composer's work here. Yes, it was possible to compose more new songs for full-length album. But overall, album leaves a pleasant impression. Yes, there are few new songs here. But I hope that in the future this will be more.