STORTREGN - Singularity

Stortregn – Singularity (2016, Non Serviam Records)

If I could have a time capsule and go back to any time in my life as a Metal addicted fan it would be around 1998, the time I got around Black Metal and the extremities of music along with Brutal Death Metal and Grindcore. The new album by the Swiss Melodic Death Metal band Stortregn is almost doing that for me. It took me many listens to actually get it but know the comparison can’t get off my head : Stortregn reminds me of In Flames circa 1998 to 2001. Not the actual melodic Metalcore that they are doing dressed as Metal emos. But to be even more precise, they remind me of the album Whoracle. It’s like a picture where you can see two faces depending on where you are looking; once you can see it you cannot unsee it.

With their first full lenght, Stortregn are making a blend of Blackened Death Metal with melodies and classic guitar riffs and solos. The kind of band that sounds familiar at the first sight and that is appealing for a vast array of Metal fans. Despite having this ‘’quality’’, the band pictures announce a much more aggressive music than what it is in fact on the record. The use of acoustic guitars, the song structures that are more on the melodic Thrash Metal anthem than the more corrosive Black/Death Metal that was promised tend to left me cold and waiting for something toothier.

This is not a bad album but it is lacking in originality and surprises. At the same time I discovered Singularity I was writing my review for the last Desaster which met and even surpassed every expectations. The main problem with this album is that it lacks cohesion and mostly focus. There are too many composition shortcuts and common places in the music.

Overall, I feel left on my appetite by this album that I so wanted to love and cherish. The two dozens of listens weren’t enough to convince me but they didn’t loath me either. Stortregn will definitely please many Metal fans but I am not one of them. From Singularity, they can only get better and improve as a more mature outfit and get their own sound and leave their influences.

4.9