5Rand: Sacred / Scared

Listeners will quickly realize that 5Rand isn't pulling any punches here. After a short musical throat-clearing, the album jumps right into a pummeling series of generally fast, aggressive, and intense songs. Even though 5Rand is a relatively new act, they are already relatively well-known for lead vocalist Julia, a performer with a harsh and intense vocal style that will certainly draw comparisons to Alissa White-Gluz. I haven't seen 5Rand in concert, but the pictures I've seen of the band suggest that Julia has tons of energy that she infuses into the band's live shows.

5Rand plays extreme metal that will sound familiar to most listeners. It borrows from a variety of styles, including bands like Testament, Pantera, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and others. There's no single perfect comparison but extreme metal fans will catch on quickly to 5Rand's style. To my ears, it's basically a healthy blend of death metal, melodic metal, and that clipped chugging sound best described as djent. I was impressed with the band's overall sound, style, and performance, especially in the passages where they had to keep things tight and technically proficient. There's no doubt that 5Rand is a band to watch. At its best, this album is powerful and relentless. If the band has one weakness, it's that they occasionally alternate too much between the clean and harsh vocal styles. Some bands simply get the balance between the styles all wrong. 5Rand keeps the balance mostly right, but there's always a risk of losing fans who want more consistency in one or other style. I thought "Paint of Pain" weaved the clean and harsh styles pretty well. Some of the other tracks had more clean singing than I personally wanted to hear. On the surface, there isn't that much difference between the songs on this album; I just prefer clean sections that are short, tight, and purposeful. Check out "Erase" and "Paint of Pain."

Track Listing:
1. Behind the Doors of Sin
2. Erase
3. Fuck—Simile
4. Paint of Pain
5. Codyceps
6. Blessed
7. Preacher of Lies
8. Drowning into Insanity
9. The True Death Show
10. Narcolepsycho (Silent Scream)

Added: March 28th 2017
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1600
Language: english

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