So Madhour, got this one in the mail so it gets priority on reviews! Since i don’t know Madhouse maybe we need a bit of a intro, so Madhour hails from Italy and its the brainchild of Ul Teo on bass (from Longobardeath), Lau on vocals, Mike on drums (from Vexed, Tethra and Sidhe), Vik and Paul on guitars, mostly a live heavy metal band and this is their debut mini cd.
Let me get my teeth into this, first of all i don’t know what “the beginning of disaster” means, beginning of A disaster? cause disaster by itself means a thing, not a multitude of things, that would be a cataclysm or hehehe, well maybe I’m nitpicking, lets get into the tracks shall we ^_^
Ohh from the first couple of listens this is what i get, this is plain vanilla heavy metal, the band sure is competent, but the vocalist, something seems off, sounds like a rushed job, she fails and eats too many words and yes i know you can do that and sound freaking awesome, but this is not the case, sounds like she is speed reading while the band is playing somewhere else, instead of wel… singing… seems the mix wasn’t all that successful, that and although Lau voice is nice she seems to struggle with english, i feel the tracks would sound way better if there was less singing in them, sometimes less is more…
So we start with “Unleash the Beast”, its a nice groovy track, but the chorus is kinda really bad, Lau seems rushed and not in a good way, all this feels like amateur hour… its making me giggle, ok ok back to work, the next one “Song of Hate” starts off really nice and groovy and a bit heavier, still it struggles again on the chorus, “Wall of Pain” has a bit of a doomier feeling, but again Lau sounds like she is reading in school, still overall a way better and stronger track with a nice guitar solo, this one i would listen again…
Humm “House of Death” is a bit of the same, better than the start but nothing to call home about, next “Sparkle of Soul” is a bit different formula with a more paced attack and a spark shouting chorus, “Earth’s Rage” goddammit finally a track i like, a nice groove, Lau slowing down on her singing and a very catchy well made and heavy chorus, with a nice heavier guitar solo and crescendo, hell seems this album does have a silver lining.
Ok, i know first albums are also a test of sorts and this one was clearly rushed, and im not one to tell bands what todo, but i would suggest Lau to chill the fuck down and make smaller lyrics to the songs, singing huge amounts of lyrics on a basic monotone is killing Madhour’s sound, her singing as of now is not complementing the music, its bringing the music down and me with it, so i would say humm good first try, there is quality to be had, but singing and lyrics need work as well as the mixing!
Myspace Madhour
Earth’s Rage
