That Sonic Syndicate are Swedish will come as no surprise to anyone with a pair of ears and an awareness of the “Gothenburg sound” phenomenon. The biggest mystery about Love And Other Disasters – the band’s second album for Nuclear Blast, after being signed as winners of a competition back in 2006 – is quite why they dislike the city of Worcester so much.
OK, so I’m inferring on that last bit… but really, a Swedish band titling a song “Hellmouth: Worcester”? Why not “Hellmouth: Helsinki”? Then again, Sonic Syndicate’s lyrics are all in English, and Love And Other Disasters has all the hallmarks of metal that aims for wide popularity, so maybe they felt Worcester would resonate globally with more listeners as a place of hellish outpourings. (It’s been a while since I passed through that way, but from what I remember of it they may have chosen moderately well.)
Obtuse song titles aside, what have we got on Love And Other Disasters? Well, we’ve got what I’m increasingly starting to recognise as the template Gothenburg “melodic death” sound, though Sonic Syndicate bring a little more of the old-school thrash metal vibe to their guitar work – less harmonised lead riffs, more palm-muted rhythms. This gives a good sense of pace and power to the proceedings, so that when the polished hooks of the choruses come along you’re not completely overwhelmed by the cheese factor.
Because, like much of the music in the same bracket, there is more than a hint of the dairy product to Sonic Syndicate’s songwriting. But held up against the tedious clichés and quotidian box-ticking of Bullet For My Valentine, for example, Love And Other Disasters is light-years more convincing, despite the similar subject material. Perhaps it’s down to a healthy sense of restraint - “My Escape”, for example, skates close to the edge of cheddar territory time and time again, but always pulls itself just short of tumbling into farce.
Love And Other Disasters is pretty easy on the ear all round, and has no shortage of infectious melodies – it’s the sort of album that you find yourself whistling along to right away. But that instant familiarity works against Sonic Syndicate in the long run, because by the time you’ve reached the end it’s become apparent that they’ve recycled the same three songs a number of times over. It’s the structures where it’s most apparent: ferocious intro, [a - chunky verse, epic clean-vocalled chorus], repeat [a], repeat [a], [middle eight with possible twiddly solo bit], [key change, epic bit], repeat [a], outro. It’s a good formula, but it gets over-familiar pretty fast.
That said, there are some little flourishes that bring extra life to a few tracks; the synthy riffs in “Jack of Diamonds” balance neatly with the solid chuggity-chug of the guitars while some neat production tweaks add interest with chopped vocals and gated sounds, and “Power Shift” has a hint of the metalcore about its pace and rhythm. But ultimately Sonic Syndicate have played it pretty safe with Love And Other Disasters – and while it may not be the most memorable album to be released this year, it’s a shining demonstration that sometimes sticking to what you’re good at is a very sound move.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: Gothenburg, Love And Other Disasters, melodic death, metal, Sonic Syndicate, thrash
