Black Trip: Heart Of The Dream

The press release for Heart Of The Dream, which is a three track EP, suggests that technical thrash metallers Black Trip formed while the four members of the band were studying and Boston's Berklee College of Music. Whereas the band's MySpace page offers the opinion that Black Trip came together in Mexico City as a studio project for guitarist Gennaro Ammendola to record the songs he'd written. Now which of those versions of events is correct, I've no idea, but what I do know is that this short sharp blast of thick riffs, blistering solos and pummelling snare, while being far from the finished article, does show considerable promise.

The plus points come in the shape of some excellent musicianship, with Ammendola leading from the front with head hammeringly powerful rhythm guitar, while Ben Levin sears through the solos. Add to that versatile drumming from Jeff Hale and equally expansive bass playing courtesy of Trevor McCabe and the results should be impressive. However a production which leaves the ceaseless snare snapping right at the front of the mix, along with dull, lifeless, unflattering vocals (also from Ammendola) undoes most of the good work created by the progressively themed chunks of admittedly during the first two songs over-long, foot to the floor metal. There's no doubting that the shorter three minute or so "Wings Of Steel" fares best, with a more focused approach seemingly leaving less time for the cluttered vocals to overpower the guitars as they do at times during "Heart Of The Dream" and "Voice Of Truth".

Let's not forget that it is early days for this outfit and while the three tracks provided here don't quite do enough to convince, there are signs of more interesting things to come. Great skills alone won't be enough to turn Black Trip into contenders, for that the ability to provide a few killer hooks and the smarts to turn flash into focus is also required.

Track Listing
1. Heart Of The Dream
2. Voice Of Truth
3. Wings Of Steel

Added: June 15th 2012
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Black Trip MySpace Page
Hits: 1995
Language: english

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