The Sorrow - Blessings From A Blackened Sky
Drakkar
Metalcore
12 songs (50:20)
Release year: 2007
The Sorrow, Drakkar
Reviewed by Khelek
Archive review

I had never heard of Austria's The Sorrow before, but I heard them compared to Unearth and older Killswitch Engage so I decided to check out their debut album to see what they could accomplish. What you're going to get here is pretty standard metalcore, breakdowns and clean vocals in the chorus included, so if that's not your thing this probably is not the album for you. Still there? From a musical perspective these guys are obviously influenced by bands like Unearth that combine standard metalcore with melodeath melodies and similar sounding melodic guitar leads. This album is quite guitar centered, though the vocals are of course a main element as well. Unfortunately the band really doesn't try to accomplish anything new or different with this album, instead opting to play it safe and write the standard metalcore fare that has been heard before.

The melodies in The Dagger Thrust are amateur albeit catchy; it's really not a bad song to start off a debut album for a young metalcore band. The vocalist’s growls remind me very much of Unearth frontman Trevor Phipps in their earlier albums, and he actually has a decent clean voice as well. It's a song that makes you want to headbang, but it does get old kinda quick. Death From A Lovers Hand starts out boring but picks up a little bit with the main riff, a chugging set of bar chords interrupted by a breakdown from time to time. Overall not a very memorable song, and at almost 5 minutes it also can't hold my attention the entire time. I like the quick guitars and clean chorus in Knights Of Doom; I sometimes like that this music is pretty minimalistic, just heavy riffs and simple drumwork, but catchy choruses and melodies. Unfortunately most of the songs after the pointless Interlude track just do not keep this same level of memorable songwriting. The next couple tracks are pretty forgettable and From This Life only slightly catches my attention with catchier riffs, but once again it's all the same stuff that we’ve been hearing. The final track at least starts things off differently, but I feel the song becomes a little disjointed after the aggressive riffs start in. This track does have some decent guitar soloing as well, but it just feels disconnected from the rest of the song.

If you like growls contrasted with poppy-ish clean singing and big, chugging riffs with a few breakdowns tossed in, you’ll probably like this. Also if you are a fan of Unearth's earlier work, this may suite your taste, though there is not nearly the same amount of technically impressive stuff. The Sorrow definitely decided on playing it safe for their first album, but even so it's not unlistenable. There are some decent songs in here and some of the more technical guitar playing is enjoyable. I see potential in this band, the real problem here is a lack of memorable songs, especially in the second half of the album. Here's to hoping they try to move forward and write some really good stuff.


Band Myspace
Killing Songs :
The Dagger Thrust, Knights Of Doom
Khelek quoted 66 / 100
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