Wednesday, March 12, 2014

PERSUADER: "The Fiction Maze"

Rating: RR
Label: Inner Wound Recordings 2014
Review by Rich Dillon

Persuader, a power metal band born in Umea Sweden in 1997, has just returned with their fourth outing, The Fiction Maze. Their first effort arrived in 2000 ala The Hunter, 2004 saw Evolution Purgatory and 2006 supplied When Eden Burns.

Given that the Fiction Maze album appears a staggering eight years after their previous release (who do they think they are, Boston?) I would expect something magnificent for my first foray into Persuader. Alas that was not to be; maybe I just don’t fully understand it. When hearing the term power metal, it’s hard for me not to immediately think of pioneers Helloween and hold bands to that standard.

While Persuader are obviously competent with their instruments and the album was not totally awful, overall I found it hard to listen to and sluggish despite the speed of the music. There is also a heavy element of thrash prominent throughout and vocal growling from time to time coupled with the technicality of the compositions. The riffs are abundant, but seem to get lost in the background, overshadowed by the vocals and the album just seems to drone on in general. I mean no disrespect to the band, who are obviously more talented than I, but I personally just didn’t prefer listening to The Fiction Maze.
Website

No comments:

Post a Comment