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Until Dawn: Horizon

The cover to this album depicts a single individual, a young boy I think, sitting on a raft at sea, his small vessel surrounded by a large, yet calm, body of water. The title, Horizon, located precisely where the sky appears to touch the water, clearly suggests notions of things that lie beyond human view. For this picture at least, there's obviously something hopeful about the horizon. Mysterious and beautiful, horizons may even represent an intersection between dreams and realities.

The music on this album is melodic metal, but always played in the contemporary style of bands like In Flames, Trivium, Soilwork, and Killswitch Engage. There's very little on this album that looks back to the melodic sensibilities of bands like Iron Maiden or even Judas Priest. At times, the music here approaches something like metalcore, especially in the tendency to stress the emotive qualities of the lead vocals. The songs have lots of energy—I was especially fond of "The Red Sun Rises This Day" and "Strings of the Damned." These songs have strong openings that develop naturally into strong songs. This band understands the importance of a good opening and play to that strength regularly. Fortunately, most of the songs deliver on the promise of a good start.

At other times, though, things are a little plodding. Tracks like "Third Knee" and "The Trial" don't have the same passion as other tracks. I was also disappointed with the vocals on "DNR." The song isn't too bad, but Adam Macleod's singing felt too strained. His voice has more character when he growls.

This band obviously works very hard and takes their music very seriously. As I listened to this album, I was sometimes reminded of William Wordsworth's Romantic notion that poetry comes from the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. To me, this album is like that—an attempt to capture a bunch of strong thoughts and ideas. It would be great if creativity flowed in precisely that way. The problem, though, is that even our best ideas often need revision and rethinking. Inspiration comes in fits and starts, not necessarily in entire songs. This band is strong on ideas and feelings, but should think about ways to develop their songs even more, especially in their ability to carry their passion all the way to the horizon.

Track Listing:
1. Roamers and Lurkers
2. Strings of the Damned
3. The Red Sun Rises this Day
4. Third Knee
5. This Fallen Fortress
6. A Conjurer of Cheap Tricks
7. DNR
8. Time Tested Fortune
9. The Trial
10. Polar Parallels
11. Horizon
12. WM3 (Bonus Track)
13. Richard (Bonus Track)

Added: August 30th 2013
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2043
Language: english

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