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Chainsaw: The Journey Into The Heart Of Darkness

Here's another Metal Mind reissue of a release formerly on the small Empire Records label, the 2005 CD from Polish power/progressive metal band Chainsaw. Funny how such a tiny label like Empire was housing some real talented bands, who until now might never have been heard from outside Poland. Chainsaw show some real songwriting talent here on The Journey Into The Heart Of Darkness, and album with plenty of power metal crunch and instrumental texterity, but containing a boatload of catchy and memorable melodies. On the crushing opener "Bitter Thoughts" the band mixes powerful clean vocals with the occasional growl (sort of what Threshold did on a few tracks on their latest CD, or what Mercenary does on a regular basis), while "The Beginning" and "Destroying the Madness" offer up plenty of catchy riffs, haunting keyboards, and irresistible vocal hooks. Even the track "Na Skrzyd Ach Nocy", which is sung in their native tongue, you can't help but be reeled in by the addicting melodies. "Dying Hope" again sees the combination of poignant and emotional vocals mixed in with death growls, this one a more technical progressive metal piece with intricate guitar and drum arrangements, and "In Flames" sees plenty of proggy guitar passages weaving in and out of the mix supported by tight rhythms, beds of keys, and Maciej ''Maxx'' Koczorowski's soaring vocals. If you want stampeding power metal along the lines of Helloween, Edguy, or Firewind, look no further than "Welcome To Hell" and "Masters Of Shattared Dreams", two speedier and heavier riff monsters that contain no shortage of nifty guitar work from Jarek Gajczuk-Zawadzki & Arek Rygielski. Perhaps the best track here though is the massively heavy piece "Impatient", which has a real anthemic chorus that will instantly get you singing along, thrusting your horns in the air, and banging your head. After the frenzy of that number, the band goes out on an emotional note with the gorgeous & majestic piano driven "The Mourning Song". As a bonus, this reissue includes a Polish sung version of "Impatient" called "Niecierpliwy", sung by guest vocalist Grzegorz Kupezyk from Turbo. In some ways, the Polish vocals make this tune sound even more venemous, but it's still catchy as hell.

The Journey Into the Heart of Darkness is a metal album that is well worth seeking out of you like European power metal with a progressive edge. What sets it apart from the multitude of other releases is Chainsaw's ability to write catchy melodies and house them within heavy arrangements with just enough technicality to please a wide variety of metal aficionados. The band followed this up with a release called A Sin Act in 2006, which is probably well worth investigating as well.


Track Listing
01. Bitter Thoughts
02. The Beginning
03. Na Skrzyd Ach Nocy
04. Destroying The Madness
05. Dying Hope
06. In Flames
07. Welcome To Hell
08. Masters Of Shattared Dreams
09. Impatient
10. The Mourning Song
11. Niecierpliwy [bonus]

Added: February 23rd 2008
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2308
Language: english

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