Italian band Grievers do what has been done many times before: They mix melodic death metal and metalcore. If you ask me, most of the bands doing this suck. Grievers are different, as their debut album 'Reflecting Evil' proved to be quite a positive surprise.

The melodic death metal part of Grievers can be said to be inspired by Gothenburg bands such as In Flames (for example the title track) and Dark Tranquillity (e.g. 'Concept of Wisdom'). However, at their best, Grievers can throw something of their own in it, so that it does not end up sounding like total copycatting. Growled vocals can be counted to death metal genre, too. They are nothing special, but get the job done better than enough. The most evident metalcore element is drumming. It is not total metalcore stuff, but a mixture of it and death metal stylings. One more thing that can be added is neoclassical guitar work heard throughout the album here and there, mostly in guitar solos. Might be too much a mishmash for some listeners.

The songs are too similar to each other, but some are clearly worse than the better ones. The original sin in songwriting is very, very typical: The songs feel that they are elongated without any real substance. So the chances are that a listener gets his/her mind wandering off to other things when listening to the album. I said it might happen... I wouldn't mind if it was a bit more catchier at times. And no, I do not mean it needs clean crapcore vocals or things like that.

Production-wise this is okay. The drums sound too machiney every now and then. However, all the instruments and vocals are well balanced with each other so it is clear. It could have more punch, if you ask me, even though it's not flat or lame even now. Neither is playing.

There is still life in melodic death metal genre, and Grievers are here to prove it. They even manage to sound a bit different from the grey mass this genre is filled with. Hopefully they can evolve into more individual entity with their next album.

Rating: 6+ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/14/2010 20:27