Now this looks promising with its cover art reminiscent of horror pulp magazines such as "Weird Tales" and "Terror Tales". After checking out the song titles, it's clear: Time for some horror stories, dressed up with thrash metal music.

'Freak Show' is the sophomore full-length album from this Luxembourgish band, which formed in 2007. All right, it's getting more interesting: The first, if I recall correctly, metal band hailing from Luxembourg that I get to hear! There are around 30 active metal bands in the country at the moment, and thrash metal scene is not a small part of it all. I had not the slightest idea how Scarlet Anger sounds like, for a fucking Luxembourgish band!

Firstly, the band sound rather idiosyncratic. Soon it was clear, that their music was a mixture influenced by both European and North American thrash metal bands. Old and newer ones. Nope, not specially Luxembourgish sounding music here. Scarlet Anger's manner of approach is a melodic one on this album. It's neither really aggressive nor whiplash-style fast, classic stuff. The band settle for mostly middle-paced and heavy presentation. Some bits are faster (the shortest track 'Attack of the Insidious Invader' being the fastest one as a whole), some slow and calm, as is suited for the lyrical content.

Melodies often carry a gothic/doom metal edge. Another influence is Kreator: ominous and dystopian mood, that the band have been known for since 1990s up to this day. Again, these certainly suit with the lyrical themes. While 'Freak Show' is a thrash metal album, there are some (melodic) death metal elements dropped into the mixture. Here, one can hear familiar echoes from such bands as Gorefest, The Haunted, Paradise Lost (those guitar melodies), Testament and Forbidden. Surely, that's not a full list, but a good roundup. Scarlet Anger isn't inventing anything new, but they have created a concoction, that sounds more or less individual. It feels like 'Freak Show' came from 1990s.

There is no lack of guitar playing skills in the band. All kinds of riffing and lead guitar work is abound. It's just the quality of the riffs, that isn't very high every now and then. The song structures are very twisting at times, but what the band wasn't able to achieve was catchiness. Okay, slower 'An Unbelievable Story of a Stupid Boy' is a bloody catchy a song, even emotional, but generally the music does not feel seamless. I don't know, maybe it's because the promotional copy doesn't have the lyrics and I'm stumbling with the music because of that. After all, these songs are tales. This brings us to the vocals. They are in barking style, sounding like Kreator's Mille Petrozza at his lowest (pitch-wise, that is, not quality-wise). There are variety of accompanying voices, from In Flames style clean singing to growling, and from whispers to spoken ones.

Sound-wise this is modern. The drums sound triggered, which flattens the mood of the album. Then again, it is punchy, thick yet airy, and quite well-balanced. The clanking, metallic bass guitar gets buried at times, when conflicting with kick and tom drums.

'Freak Show' is an interesting if flawed piece of melodic thrash metal. It is well enough performed. It doesn't sound limp. It contains fine moments. But are fine moments enough? The real problem is the compositional quality of the songs; while they often offer a lot, they feel patchy, uneven. Repeated listens didn't change my view towards them. And it doesn't feel nowhere near like a horror-themed album as King Diamond's works...

Rating: 6+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/23/2016 23:36