Metalium - Nothing To Undo
Crash Music
Heavy / Power Metal
10 songs (43'54)
Release year: 2007
Metalium, Crash Music
Reviewed by Chris

Now here's a band that has been a a strong decline ever since their debut or at least after their very good second album. Managing to make albums less and less interesting as they went from that point on. And even the few good songs from the last chapter Demons Of Insanity, did not make it up for the steady but sure decline of this power metal band into the abyss of the bottom of the bottle of that style.

Is Metalium still digging their grave or did they wake up ? Interesting album title, Nothing to Undo ? I would say 3 medium to crappy albums to undo with this latest album seems like quite a task. And yet it seems that Metalium has chosen to get a better course that I would have expected with this album as it finally sounds like something interesting. The album is quite solid but there is still lots of road to cover for Metalium. The guitar work is strong, with alternating cubic and melodic riffs, a great vocal perfomance (that never have been an issue with the band, that's for sure), and a good collection of songs. We're finally finding some interesting choruses, and some whistle-worthy vocal melodies, about time if you ask me ! Anyone who've seen this band on stage knows these guys are talented, and while some should lower their ego, they for sure can play with brio and panache, and it was a real pain to see them sink these last few years. I for one am glad they seem to be back on the right path. But they only did half of the work with Chapter six, they need to be more judgemental with their material and get rid of the filler songs once and for all.

This album has three good killer song, the first one (second track) Spirits is a straight foward, in your face metal agressive song like Metalium knew how to deliver in the old days and seem to have found the formula again (too bad its the only song in this vein in the entire album). But there are other jems on this album. Songs like Mindless or Straight To Hell have an interesting chorus, though I'm not a huge fan of the shout-type choirs that Metalium seems to like using on their choruses, but that's not really detering me from the good things in their songs. But overall I tend to prefer melodic and sang choirs (hey, ho's and the such gets boring quickly imho). Where Metalium really shines is on songs like Heroes. This song is a killer song like I didn't think I would hear from Metalium no more (same goes for the song Dare & Spirits). With finally a worthy chorus, one that makes you want to chant along and makes this a good metal hymn ! Was Home is a nice little ballad, but Metalium shouldn't spend too much time into the ballad department, what they do best is the strong riff-based songs with killer choruses, and they need to find that magic potion they once had on their two first albums. We see glimpses of that in Nothing To Undo, but the band still isn't as tight as they used to be, and this reflects on their songs. So out of 9 songs, we have 3 killer ones, a few okay ones, and 2-3 filler tracks (Mental Blindess, Was Home & Follow The Sign ). That's still not enough to really raise back their status to their old level, even though its an improvement from what the band have shown lately, at least from their last two chapters.

The album closes with a cover of Show Must Go On, not a bad cover, but not as good as the original, and that means only 8 new songs total, that's not so much for a new album, especially with 2-3 fillers. I like hearing a heavier version of the song, but the raging guitar and strong drumming don't add anything to this memorable and forever Queen classic. The singing part are quite faithful for the most part and worthy of the song, except maybe on the last minute where it starts sounding wrong somehow.

A fair album, stellar by moments ( Dare, Heroes & Spirits in that order), but still not constant enough and far from the first two Chapters. Still, there might be hope for Metalium yet, only time will tell. Die Hard fans of the band will surely like this album, but if you don't know them I strongly suggest you listen before you buy and that you get acquainted with them with Chapter 1 and 2 first.

Killing Songs :
Spirits, Heroes & Dare (and the intro, funny all Metalium intro tracks are stellar... too bad most of the rest doesn't keep to the level of what the intro brings).
Chris quoted 60 / 100
Other albums by Metalium that we have reviewed:
Metalium - Incubus - Chapter VII reviewed by Marty and quoted 80 / 100
Metalium - Demons of Insanity: Chapter Five reviewed by Mike and quoted 49 / 100
Metalium - As One - Chapter Four reviewed by Jay and quoted 43 / 100
Metalium - Millenium Metal reviewed by Crims and quoted 85 / 100
Metalium - Hero-Nation reviewed by Mike and quoted 82 / 100
To see all 7 reviews click here
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