A RAGE OF LIGHT "Imploder"

 RAGE OF LIGHT

“Imploder”

We are told that Swiss band  RAGE OF LIGHT is on the verge of a huge breakthrough in music...the combination of electronic trance with aggressive melodic death metal. The reality? There are moments when that description seems to be apt , but for the most part, the band is female fronted Gothic metal in a pretty familiar mode.

After spending years listening to jillions of bands, my ears can detect triggered digital drums instantly and the ones I hear on “Imploder” give me a toothache. A constant barrage of machine-gun like inhuman percussion does RAGE OF LIGHT no favors. But many folks seem to actually prefer this sound, so who am I to complain? The band does indeed use a lot of synth here, but I think my techno loving friends would stop short of calling it true trance music. Let’s say the synths and electronic beats are pervasive here.

But there’s also heavy and aggressive guitar as well. The guitars have an agreeably rough sound and blast at cyclonic velocity. They also play a lot of melodic runs reminiscent of DELAIN, NIGHTWISH, etc. The female vocals are pleasant, but aren’t they always? The gal here sounds like just about every other evening gown metal songstress, including the harsh screams.

It’s not as bad as the above makes it sound. Some cuts like “Fallen”, “I Can I Will” and the epic “Mechanicals” are genuinely interesting mixs of Gothic metal, electronic sounds and melodic death metal. The instrumental title track is particularly sharp. But then we have the dreadfully generic “Nothingness”, where the title seems to refer to the amount of original thought that went into the song, and other dull tunes like “Battlefront”. And hovering over everything is the specter of those digital drum triggers…

It’s not the groundbreaking release that it’s claimed to be, but not totally without interest. Perhaps in the future RAGE OF LIGHT will really come up with “trance death”, but this really isn’t it.

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RAGE OF LIGHT