Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce to you, The Few Against Many. They are once again a Melodic Death Metal group, led by quite possibly my favorite vocalist in the Death Metal industry, Christian Älvestam.
Now as I listen to this album, I find the distinctive traits of Christian: intense and sometime brutal vocals, good guitar work, screams etc etc etc, that one would notice in some of his current bands (i.e. Solution .45, Miseration) as well as in his past bands when he was still with them. Scar Symmetry is the only good band (in terms of past bands) that I've listened to with Christian being lead vocals. The man is extremely talented. Not only does he deliver intense growls and death vocals, but he's also an accomplished clean vocalist as well.
When you say the name Christian Älvestam in the metal community, most people immediately think old SS(look up their album Holographic Universe, it is my favorite SS album with Christian, Pitch Black Progress being second). Now that he's with bands like Miseration and TFAM, not to mention the super-group Solution .45 with another one of my favorite vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jani Stefanović who is mostly known for his work with my favorite Symphonic Power Metal group DivineFire.
The album for TFAM is titled Sot, and from what I can tell its a very good album. It's a little over a half hour long, the songs averaging at about four minutes in length, the longest of them being close to seven minutes.
As far as which song is my favorite, it's hard to tell. The entire album is good in my opinion. I can't find one song that I don't like.
And now comes the part where I rate the band:
Vocals: 8.5.
The reason I give Christian only an 8.5 is because honestly I've heard better. I like him growling, but I love when at least a song or two has some cleans. This album, unfortunately has none which is a bummer for me simply because of how good Christian can hit the notes he hits. He's no Rob Rock, but then again, who is?
Musical Structure: 9
I give this album a 9 because no album is perfect, just like no band in perfect. No matter how hard you try you will never make a "perfect" album. A prime example of that is Impellitteri's album Wicked Maiden. It took the band almost five years to complete the album, mostly due to the fact that Chris kept feeling as if he could do better. And I like it when a band or artist pushes themselves to do better. Because it tells me that they're serious about it. But I'm sure that as happy as Chris is with the album, I'm pretty sure there are some things he wishes he did, some things he wishes he did better and some things he didn't want to do at all.
Lyrical Structure: 8
An 8. Why you would ask? Because, while they stuck to the theme, the words where hard to understand even for Christian. Most of the time, I can decipher what he's saying, but for whatever reason it may be, be it production, mixing of the tracks, whatever, it was harder for me to understand.
Style: 8
Again? 8? Really? I know, a lot of 8's this time around. For the style they do, I was kind of disappointed in TFAM. I've heard better, but I've also heard worse(new SS). For whatever reason, I just wasn't as impressed with this band in terms of style. Maybe its because a good chunk of the music I listen to is Melodeath, maybe I'm starting to get bored of Melodeath, who knows? Anyway, they get an 8 for the debut album. I can't wait to see what these guys do.
Total rating: 9.5
Not bad for a band only three years young. Like I said, I've heard a lot worse...But, on the other hand, I've also heard much better.
As always, I'm your host, Wattako. Stay Shockey.
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