Pilgrimz

Boar Riders

Written by: PP on 18/06/2008 03:12:06

So the Danish metal media/promoters have a tendency similar to that of the mainstream rock media of the UK: once they find something new and exciting in the scene, they\'ll start hyping it up endlessly until the band start growing exponentially (also known as snowballing). This often leads to a point where everyone\'s going to their shows and buying their CDs, which I normally wouldn\'t have a problem with, as long as the band was actually worth the hype. More often than not, they really aren\'t, and such is the case with Pilgrimz, the newest Danish metal act, who are currently marketed as the \"next big international metal name\" from Denmark. And we haven\'t even passed the release date of their debut album \"Boar Riders\" yet!

I\'ll just set the facts straight right away. Pilgrimz sound no different to your ordinary metal band in Denmark. Like my fellow scribe AP mentioned about another Danish band not too long ago, they are trapped in that Danish metal sound that really can\'t be shoved into any subgenre, they are simply \'metal\' for the sake of being \'metal\'.

One could argue that Pilgrimz are a metallic hardcore (but NOT metalcore) band in the vein of As We Fight and The Haunted, as they borrow bits and pieces from both bands. But combining the angry, \"played and recorded live\" sound of the former together with the thrashy Swedishness of the latter only results into a genre collision and, unfortunately, a generic sound that sees the band repeat itself over the course of the whole album.

Where \"Boar Riders\" fails most is in its vocal and songwriting department. Lets take the latter first because it\'s easier to explain: many of the songs either start out amazing (\"Jimmy\'s Castle\") or have a few superb riffs in the middle of the song (\"The Flick\"), but almost all of them fail to capitalize on that momentum. Too often are the riffs followed by generic riffing and boring breakdowns. It\'s as if the band are trying to be ultra aggressive just for the sake of being aggressive.

Then lets take the vocals, which dwell somewhere between a pig-squeak, a growled scream, and the typical hardcore yell. Very, very similar to the nothing-saying shriek of the dude from As We Fight. Additionally, each and every time he slides his voice closer to the pig-squeak territory, I find myself pulling my hair and banging my head against the wall, because the style is simply the most annoying kind imaginable. Also, clean vocals are a distant echo somewhere in Grand Canyon. Throwing in a clean verse or two instead of the constant monotonous shriek (that isn\'t characteristic or eccentric as the promotional info suggests) would really do wonders to Pilgrimz on the album, because as it is standing right now, it\'s one of the least flashy jobs by the star-ridden production axle Tue Madsen / Jacob Hansen. Shame, because the demo/EP tracks that surfaced long before this album suggested that this band could do so much better.

Download: The Flick, Shake-A-Feather
For the fans of: As We Fight, Unearth
Listen: Myspace

Release date 23.06.2008
I Scream Records
Provided by Target ApS

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