Good things take time. Sweep after a long absence megora with their second full-length album «Burning Empire» to build on the successes of earlier days. Since 1990, the Swiss have released an album and two EPs and have toured several times with well-known acts such as Overkill and Metal Church, but despite the tours, it has never become anything really big. Understand after 25 years of band history megora their craft better than ever. "Burning Empire" is now being launched onto the market with unflinching enthusiasm and I would love to celebrate it and thus contribute a little to its success, but unfortunately the disc doesn't really knock my socks off.
In the first years after the band was founded, the boys were able to gain an excellent reputation and were already able to share the stage with some of the big names in the scene. A highlight was certainly the gig on the «70.000 Tons of Metal Cruise». So it's not surprising that the new album shows a certain routine and playful security right from the start. The base sounds promising at first, settled between Heavy and Thrash with a voice that suits it. The opener "These Are The Things We Hate" impressively proves that the intersection of heavy and thrash metal can work. With «New Approach» the sound is given a huge load of groove before the title track comes around the corner as a howl-along grenade.
What the men around singer and guitarist Peter "Piotr" Sommer produce is technically solid and knows how to please in places. So the track with the memorable name "=" goes straight ahead, but "Countdown To Black" also has its good moments with its Hard Rock influences. In terms of sound, Megora are very broad and combine hard rock, acoustic intermezzos («Born To Pay») and pure thrash («Felskinn»). Here and there one wishes for a shovel more joy in experimenting in the songwriting, but at no point does it really get bored, rather every song knows how to entertain in its own way.
I like Megora best when they get to the point quickly and without frills. The driving riffs are direct and quite fat, plus good solos, acoustic passages in between and the powerful voice of singer Piotr complete the thing. Personally, I would have appreciated a little more experimentation and the courage to make a real change, as the thrashy «Felskinn» definitely did. The mid-tempo songs are too flat and fade away quite quickly as a result. «Burning Empires» suffers from an ubiquitous, subliminal grunge melancholy, which would have done well with more variation in tempo and heaviness. Unfortunately, there are also deductions in terms of production. The vocals and the strings are well mixed, but the drums sometimes sound too tinny and are a bit too dominant. Unfortunately, the Swiss cannot set new accents. All in all, Megora deliver a decent album. Fans of classic heavy/thrash metal will definitely like «Burning Empire» and if the weaknesses are worked on, the next album (hopefully not that long in coming) has a lot in store!
You can do the album buy in our shop.
Tracklist:
- These are the things we hate
- New approach
- BurningEmpire
- Countdown To Black
- Lost Children
- Mirrored eyes
- =
- Born to Pay
- Rock chin
- Broken wings
- Modern nation
- Bad Karma
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