By Jonny Bakes
I’ve definitely been picking up a significant proportion of the melodic death metal that finds its way into the “bucket” of albums at ÜRHQ which has been a fantastic way to discover some of the newer bands starting to make waves on the scene. So when this album arrived with a promo claiming that the genre has pretty much died, I was sceptical to say the least. However, not being one to judge an album based on the claims of the press release (otherwise what would be the point in reviewing albums at all!), I gave this the benefit of the doubt and looked into what Meridian Dawn has to offer.
Formed in 2012 by vocalist Antony Hämäläinen and guitarist/bassist Nick Ziros, the debut EP ‘The Mixtape EP’ was recorded and released in 2014 but now it’s time for Meridian Dawn to finally unleash a full-length album. However, the road to this new album has been paved with some significant line-up changes which leaves drummer Johan Nunez (Kamelot and Firewind among others) as the last man standing of the original supporting lineup that were involved with the debut EP. Change isn’t necessarily a bad thing though and it doesn’t seem to have hindered them in the production of ‘The Fever Syndrome’ at all.
Overall, this is a pretty solid melodic death metal album that takes its influence from the early Swedish pioneers of the genre, so we’re talking your In Flames, At The Gates, Dark Tranquility, etc. Unlike a lot of the more modern releases under this banner, ‘The Fever Syndrome’ maintains the harshness in the vocals throughout the album with not a single clean vocal section to be seen. The guitar work, as you would expect, focuses heavily on the melodies which results in some pretty pleasing riffage.
There are points in the album where things get just a little bit more frantic and ferocious but for the most part the general mood stays pretty level. In a similar way to a lot of melodic death releases, it has somewhat of a savage beauty to it where the brutality of the vocals and the blasting rhythm meets the harmonics of the guitars to create something I would consider to be quite chilled… but then I remember that not everyone would!
It was difficult to pick out a bunch of stand-out tracks on this album, as they are all pretty on par with each other. But if I were to choose one it would have to be ‘Luminescent’ which seems to capture this raw energy and aggression that builds with each verse. After catching you off guard with a pretty mellow opening, the blistering double bass drum beat kicks in to herald the start of the aggression, which only really lets up for a brief swirling guitar melody to give a brief break before the aggression gets turned back up to 11. But there is one other honourable mention, but this is for having the most topical song name on the album – ‘Involuntary Seclusion’ which is far too relatable!
So, after the bold claim of melodic death metal being a dying genre and this album being pitched as the saviour, I was pretty underwhelmed. It’s a fairly solid album that I certainly wouldn’t give up on listening part way through, but it also hasn’t really set my world on fire with ‘The Fever Syndrome’. I’ve reviewed more impressive albums from the genre over the last year, that’s for sure. It’s still an overall decent album though, and is worthy of a listen or two, and there may be some of you out there who take to it more than I did, particularly those who are big fans of the early Swedish melodic death metal scene. All in all, not a bad album, but just not the revolutionary album that I was anticipating.
- ‘The Fever Syndrome’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
www.facebook.com/meridiandawnofficial
- All content © Über Rock. Not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of Über Rock.