Maximum Metal Rating Legend

Rise To Fall Defying The Gods Company: Coroner Records Release: 2012 Genre: Modern melodic Reviewer: EC

A decent stab at melodic modern metal

Rise To Fall are the Spanish version of In Flames. The band have been around since 2006 and released their debut "Restore The Balance" in 2010. I'm not sure what sort of waves the band created with the debut as I've never heard anything from the group until now. This new album, "Defying The Gods", comes by way of Coroner Records and was produced, mixed and mastered by Ettore Rigotti (The Stranded, Disarmonia Mundi) at the Metal House Studio. The Japanese pressing contains one additional track than the regular Euro version.

Rise To Fall are the culmination of twin guitar, electronic sounds and a mixture of rough and clean vocals. An album like "Defying The Gods" would have been in fashion circa 1999, unfortunately that time has come and gone and what we have left is a few hundred bands playing this style of Gothenburg metal currently or at one point over the last 15 years. Nevertheless what the band does present for us is a decent stab at melodic modern metal, focusing on the "Reroute To Remain" era of In Flames and the post "The Gallery" era of Dark Tranquility. The band have their sound firmly based around twin guitar melody, the backbone of the band from which they incorporate a consistent electronic sound. The two vocalists complement each other well with the clean singing mostly through the vocal lines.

Fans of Dark Tranquility and In Flames should enjoy this if they haven't already grown tired of the sound. This sort of thing coming out of Spain is a bit odd considering the power metal craziness of the country. It will be interesting to see if the band can mature beyond this sort of "cut and paste" metal and go into something truly original or...dare I say...innovative.