Subliminal Fear: One More Breath

Five years on from their debut full length release, Uncolored World Dying, Italians Subliminal Fear are back with One More Breath, blasting through with all things Scanawegian. Classing itself as melodic death metal, this second outing sits in a dangerous position between old and new school death, with elements of Children Of Bodom and their Gothenburg sound, mixing merrily with more straight ahead Arch Enemy style guitar bashing and drum mangling. To be fair the results are, if a little predictable, not bad at all, but the worry is that Subliminal Fear will end up teetering dangerously over the unwanted no man's land between the traditional extreme metal fans and those in the camp where spikey hair and almost screamo vocals like to play a part.

If that all sounds like a sorry mish-mash, then that would be almost fair, as songs such as "From Joy To Agony", or "Raving Of The Moment" (which I think is lost in translation...) tear along with a joyous, melodic intensity where the guitars shred and the vocals spit and gargle. However both also feature those short break-outs where layered, slightly harmonising vocals burst through in an all too "everyone's doing that right now" kind of way, that sours the taste of the lip smacking brutality it follows. It almost feels like an afterthought to make the songs sound "current", with the results just being neither one thing nor the other.

Still, "Become Victim" powers home with more focused intent and one of the best vocals on the album, while "Not In Your Hands" goes further down the keyboard infused modern route, taking its foot off the gas as it does so. Both songs show that Subliminal Fear can handle the old and new very well, just not necessarily at the same time and therein lays the problem.

Beset by line-up issues and with a long delay between their first and second albums, Subliminal Fear have proved with One More Breath that they have the chops and possess some fine song-writing skills. Hopefully a less turbulent few years will see them grow into something that has more of its own identity.

Track Listing
1. Prayers For The Innocent
2. Ready To Fight
3. One More Breath
4. Not In Your Hands
5. Waters Of Solitude
6. Raving Of The Moment
7. From Joy To Agony
8. Becoming Victim
9. Run Away (From This Hate)
10. Immutable Event

Added: November 30th 2012
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Subliminal Fear Online
Hits: 2183
Language: english

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