Ah that old cliché of not judging a book by it’s cover may well be true but how about that one of recognising a metalcore band by its sleeve art. Yeah it really is one of those games that’s pretty easy to play and along with the name Angels and Enemies, the picture of the band and the fact all the song titles are in German I was right in guessing exactly what this what. That didn’t stop me scratching my head as I started to play and realising I quite liked what I was hearing, especially as a huge slew of review material had been sent out and we were pretty much out of reviewing staff, not that we had many that can stomach this sort of music in the first place. So I was kind of stuck whether I wanted to be or not.
History here is brief, the band are from Cologne and Bonn and have played in some bands that you and I have probably never heard of before. The strangely titled album which translates to the equally unwieldy ‘Gdcmplx’ is their debut and if you were brought up on a diet of bands such as Fear My Thoughts, Heaven Shall Burn and all the usual suspects this is probably going to go to the top of your class.
Songs are fast and frantic and pretty damn punishing. Twin guitar harmonics work great as the numbers backbone and have a real straight outta Gothenburg flavour about them. Vocals are yappy and to be honest could have the scope to get on the nerves after a few numbers, there is very little in the way of change of pitch or range in them and the language barrier does little to help me gain any higher learning. The drums, well they just batter and they do it well. Listening to this my hands are busy playing the dynamic riffs along to numbers such as ‘Herbst’ and my feet are jigging around almost making me want to get up and get into some pit circle action around the living room. Even though I have heard this sort of stuff so many times over the last 15 years or so, I cannot help but think this lot are certainly one of the better examples out there and this is the most dynamic album of its kind I have probably heard since Naera’s ‘Armamentarium’ showed me this was a type of music that still had some legs to it (shame about the follow up).
Not that this means I am going to don a vest and backpack and head down to town next time Caliban come to visit but Angels And Enemies definitely have a spark about them that has made this doubter sit up and listen, so fair play to them.
http://www.myspace.com/angelsandenemies
