Alright, probably it’s time for me to move on a bit and admit that Meliah Rage is not only “Kill to Survive” and “Solitary Solitude”. I’m big fan of first two albums, rest was OK, but not that good. This year old, classic band released a new album, so let’s take a closer look at it.
First and foremost- I was really curious how this CD would sound- Meliah Rage lost their strongest member in my opinion. That’s right, Mike Munro no longer stands behind the microphone. New singer- Marc Lopes did his job perfectly. He didn’t try to follow his precursor, as Munro’s main inspiration was probably James Hetfield- for Lopes it’s James Riviera or Mike Howe. And he knows how to sing- except great influences, new frontman possess also a great skill. Finding a good replacement for Mundo is almost a miracle, that we can watch by our own eyes (or should I say ears?).
About compositions? Well, typical Meliah rage- oscillating somewhere between american power, classic heavy and thrash, maybe with a bit of nostalgy. Second element that makes this formation so strong are guitar works- amazing riffs, that automatically switches my neck to “headbang-on” mode. And yet there are a lot of space to create great atmosphere. Just listen to “Stranger To Your Sympathy” (by the way it’s in my opinion the best song on album). Drum lines are very simple, but that’s not a disadvantage. They give much more power and aggression, or accent to a melodic parts.
So do we have an album of the year? I won’t say that, but one thing is sure- new Meliah Rage work is really good. But for me the most important fact is that this CD broke a chains, that I had in my mind- I no longer see Bostonian band as a formations with only two albums.
Wojciech Michalak