The band name, CD title and artwork suggest that Right Stripped's latest album, Absence of Humanity, is a downer. And it is, in the sense that the Michigan-based band's heavy sound becomes redundant after only a few songs on this 13-track collection. That said, the album is filled with roiling mid-tempo monsters that recall American-metal stalwarts Iced Earth and Symphony X. The music is almost void of the keyboards that drove Right Stripped's earlier work. Instead, songs such as the title track and "Forcing Isolation" are dominated by Josh Carney's wicked guitars, while vocalist Joe Kiesgen's powerful lungs emit throaty barks on tracks like "Vindication," proving Right Stripped can balance on the barbed-wire fence between progressive and thrash metal. And the presence of female vocalist Kelli Turczyn on "Silence the Hatred Pt. 2" should enamor fans of Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation and Delain.
It all suggests that Right Stripped is primed for mainstream-rock radio.
Track Listing:
1) Phoenix
2) Silence in Hatred
3) Absence of Humanity
4) Darkest Hour
5) Vindication
6) Our Ways
7) The Awakening
8) Forcing Isolation
9) Requiem
10) Of Saints and Martyrs
11) Demon Eyes
12) Silence the Hatred, Pt. 2
13) Soul Aflame