DeadRisen – DeadRisen
Album Review By Rainer Kerber
What happens when old rock hands meet young wild ones. They form a new band and try to combine the influences of different styles and take them to a new level. This is what happened at DeadRisen on the American east coast. The superstars Mike Lepond (Symphony X) and Rod Rivera (Rivera / Bomma) gathered some of the best rock musicians of the present (o-ton press text), which are already known from bands like Livesay, Midnight Eternal or Heir Apparent. So, a “supergroup” is born. Now the five musicians indulge in hard rock and heavy metal from the 70s and 80s. The self-titled debut album will be released by the Hamburg label AFM in March.
The intro “Risen Death A D” let fear the worst. More than one minute of epic, bombast, strings, orchestra and large choruses. However, that remains the only outlier in the direction of symphonic metal. “Prophecy” really bangs out of the speakers. Fast hectic guitars, strong riffs and a lot of melody. In addition, an outstanding rock voice. Sure, the keys can be heard clearly here, but there is actually only one direction. And that means rocking straight forward. This is a real high-speed par force ride. And Rod Rivera delivers Speed Metal-like guitar solos. Even with “Destiny” it doesn’t get a bit calmer. Speed Thrash is then available from “The Maker”. The keyboards are barely heard. Wouldn’t fit in here, however. The keyboard-heavy ballad “Reach For The Sun” then sets a resting point. With an extremely melodic guitar solo. Wonderfully suitable for dreaming. After an acoustic guitar introduction, “Visions” mutates into a hard rock pounder. It is also a hymn, as the quintet on “Fear And Fury” shows. The Hammond organ keeps wobbling. The “But You” song, which mainly sounds like Metallica, DeadRisen let follow the Metallica cover “For Whom The Bell Tolls” as the final song. Here, the classic thrash metal is enhanced dramatically with power metal elements.
Supergroups often promise more than they can ultimately deliver. It’s different here. The quintet is more than just the sum of its five band members. Stylistically, there are no limits. That makes the album varied and extremely worth listening to. We can only hope that this is not a one-off collaboration and that the five will postpone one or the other album.
Photo: Jatzi Nieto
DeadRisen – Fear And Fury: https://youtu.be/l17r6MrTDbA
Lineup:
Will Shaw – Vocals
Rod Rivera – Guitars
Mike Lepond – Bass
Tony Stahl – Keyboards
Dan Prestup – Drums
Label: AFM Records
Out: March 13th, 2020
Playing time: 48:30
Track list:
- Risen Death A D
- Prophecy
- Destiny
- The Maker
- Reach For The Sun
- Visions
- Chains Of Time
- Fear And Fury
- But You
- For Whom The Bell Tolls
Rating : 8/10
MHF Magazine/Rainer Kerber
