Artist: Marionette
Title: Enemies
Type: Album
Label: Listenable

Just when I was getting the feeling that the dreaded Melodeath and Metalcore genres were finally on their last legs, this dropped on my desk. Marionette are a Swedish sextet, all done up to the nines in lovely eyeliner and a serious attempt at a dark and menacing look. So far all the relevant boxes ticked then for a band of this style, so what else should we expect? 45 minutes of narcissistic screaming in one tone, interspersed with choruses of floaty, clean mediocrity, allied to constant blast beats and the same 3 guitar riffs recycled over and over and over until I just want to stab the speakers and then kill something fluffy. Well, I have to admit, on this occasion, no. What we have instead is something that, whilst not perfect by any means, does suggest a small glimmer of life remaining in what I had considered until now, a largely pointless and redundant scene.

Vocalist Axel Widen is a strange one, in that for the most part, and certainly at first listen, he delivers on my low expectations with a competent, but quite ordinary set of single tone shouting pipes. However, if you listen very closely, there are hidden elements to that voice. Take for example on the rather relentless opener ‘The Swine’, as he shouts “YOU CONFORM” repeatedly, that sounds very much like an inner Devin Townsend is trying to claw his way to freedom. Go on Axel, if he’s in there, unleash the Dev! You know you want to really. It’s not just the vocals that have hidden depths though, the guitars have more style, melody and riff variation than any band I’ve heard in this style for quite some time. On ‘The Silver Spoon’, Aron Parmerud and Anton Modig manage to conjure up some memorable moments. They do all seem to be hidden within songs though, and I did rather find myself listening to this playing a little game of ‘hunt the good bit’, rather than enjoying songs in there entirety, but spoiled and surprised by the actual inclusion of musical inspiration, I found myself eager to further explore this potential miniature treasure trove. Sure enough there they are, dotted around all over the place, ‘Stench Of The Herd’, with its driving drum pattern that brings Melechesh to mind, the two minute instrumental blast that is ‘The Slaughter’, sounding like the entrance theme for some fictional wrestler called The Sodomizer’, (although apologies to Mr Sodomizer if he already exists. I’m sure you’d more likely have something by Sodom).

I’ll admit, I usually have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to bands like Marionette, but this has caught me by surprise. There’s certainly enough variation here to keep the interest throughout, and even the odd technical flash of brilliance. This allied to a quite massive and shiny production courtesy of Fredrick Nordstrom, completes a package that is rather better than I would have expected. For fans of Dark Tranquillity and the more recent works of In Flames.

http://www.myspace.com/marionettesweden

Lee Kimber

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