Much to the joy of their army of fans, when Sonic Syndicate members Richard and Roger Sjunnesson and Roland Johansson released debut album Hell Frost under the new guise of The Unguided back in 2011, their former band was writ large throughout a record that seemed to pick up where the early era of the band had left off.
With a few EPs under their belt since, this new full-length is very much a case of more of the same. The Swedes’ polished modern melodic death metal unsurprisingly does little to mess with the formula and will no doubt tick all of the boxes for current fans of the band.
It’s the nature of what’s on offer from this formula where the album falls down, however. While performed well enough, it’s all too familiar, with one track of dual vocals, uninspired riffs and sometimes overpowering synth work easily melding into the next until in the end you can’t help that you’ve heard it all many times before.
