Metalium – Incubus: Chapter VII

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Massacre
Produced by Lars Ratz

Just a year since their last album, and with some touring in between, Metalium maintain their remarkable work ethic by returning quickly with another new one, their seventh in nine years – and their best.

Following two-minute military-esque intro Trust normal Metalium service begins with fast, heavy power metal and vocalist Henning Basse (who replaced Apollo Papathanasio on some of Firewind‘s touring last year, making the production of yet another Metalium record even more impressive) wailing on top form in Resurrection. The riffs are noticeably heavier than previous outing Nothing To Undo, which in turn was heavier than all the other albums, but they’ve lost none of their melodic abilities along the way.

Gates is very possibly the finest Metalium song of their career so far. An astonishingly good chorus, with built-in audience-fist-raising moment sits amongst groove-heavy, pounding riffs, a brilliantly aggressive performance from Basse and a crowd-participation ending. Then title track Incubus takes the ‘Heaviest Metalium Song To Date’ crown. A slower, heavier sound, close to that of ex-guitarist Chris Caffery‘s solo work, and a sinister, evil verse vocal give the track a seriously evil tone.

Following two of the best songs they’ve ever written is always going to be difficult, and Take Me Higher and Never Die are unsurprisingly not up to Gates or Incubus. But they’re the next best thing! More impressively strong, and very heavy power metal with big choruses. The tail end predictably fails to quite match the rest, but all the songs are still solid tracks that while not troubling the scorers at the top of the Metalium catalogue, will sit comfortably somewhere in the middle without disgracing themselves.

Met Your Maker is screaming, high-speed power metal while At Armageddon and Sanity are of the mid-paced, slightly epic-feeling persuasion, with less-than-generic riffing, setting even the more uninspired tracks on the disc apart from much of the rest of the current power metal crop. Closer Hellfire is a suitably slow, fist-pumping track with a rousing chorus.

Incubus is comfortably both Metalium’s best, and heaviest record to date. Touring still seems thin on the ground (just two shows played in 2007 and none booked in 2008 at the time of writing) but with such regular, consistently high quality, and improving, output bearing the wait for some comprehensive touring is all the easier.

“ brilliantly aggressive ”

Tracklist: Trust / Resurrection / Gates / Incubus / Take Me Higher / Never Die / At Armageddon / Sanity / Meet Your Maker / Hellfire

Written by Andy Lye
More: Albums, Heavy Metal, Power Metal, Metalium