The Sorrow

Origin Of The Storm

Written by: BL on 23/03/2009 01:18:32

The Sorrow is a 4 piece metalcore outfit from Austria. In 2007 they released their debut album, "Blessings From A Blackened Sky". I enjoyed that album to a degree, and as a band they have all the things you'd expect from a band in the genre: fast riffs, screaming, singing and galloping rhythms. Another thing they have is the textbook of "How to make your songs sound remarkably like Killswitch Engage".

So this album kicks off firstly with a rather irrelevant intro track, which then breaks straight into "Where Is The Sun" and already I'm thinking to myself: "this sounds so familiar..." Had I not heard their first album, or anything by Killswitch Engage and Bullet For My Valentine, I would say this song is a good way to start the proceedings (intro track aside). The song has a cool gallop/staccato riffing verse that is full of pace and energy, which goes into a melodic chorus complete with some solid clean vocals from Mathias "Mätze" Schlegl. However, from then on almost all of the songs have the same structure, making the album extremely formulaic. It's also a bit odd that I remember reading pre-release information that said that this album would sound less like Killswitch Engage and be more metal than metalcore on the whole, as that turned out to be far from the case.

Still, despite the lack of originality, the album isn't that bad per se. The drums aren't particularly exceptional, but they do they do the job. The bass guitar follows the rhythm guitars almost religiously, but it's a little low in the mix so you'll not really notice it, which is a shame since otherwise the mastering on this album is great; the tone thick and powerful. Unfortunately the guitars are very pedestrian metalcore-wise- so if you like or are familiar with metalcore you're not going to hear anything wildly new, musically speaking. But The Sorrow do write good (albeit predictable) songs, and I liked quite a few of the songs on this album just because they were fun to listen to and had a lot of energy - and Mätze delivers some rather enjoyable choruses; his voice is passionate and helped, no doubt again, by good production.

So then will this record take The Sorrow anywhere new? I'd say probably not, since it doesn't do anything new or refreshing and if you're not into metalcore, you won't find anything new or interesting here. If you've heard their first album, then you've essentially got a continuation of that here, carrying both the same strengths (solid delivery) and the same weaknesses (sounds so much like Killswitch Engage you might mistake them for being the artist). For me? enjoyable (and I say that because I love Killswitch Engage) but too safe to go any further out of the park. A solid

7

Download: Where Is The Sun?, Scars, Faceless
For the fans of: Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine, Caliban
Listen: Myspace

Release date 27.02.2009
Drakkar Records

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