Believer - Gabriel Album Review
Artist: Believer
Album: Gabriel
Available on 03/17/2009
For those not familiar with Believer, here's a brief history on the band. In the early 90's there was a plethora of awesome Christian thrash, death, speed metal bands. In this group were awesome bands such as Deliverance, Vengeance Rising, The Crucified, Tourniquet, Mortification, and Believer among others. Out of all of those, Believer was the only one that was given any mainstream recognition. (Recently Tourniquet has been given props) Their first album: Extraction from Mortality was raw and unflinching but the production values were a little lacking. Still some of their best material is on that album. Their second album was a huge step up in production values and continued their trend for progressive thrash metal with odd time signatures and disynchropated chords and notes. Their third album Dimensions was ground breaking in several different ways. First off it was one of the first albums ever (metal or not) that was totally 100% digitally recorded. The sound production on this album is phenomenal. They are also one of the first metal bands to incorporate opera and classical music with hardcore metal music. Now every other metal band and their dog does it. Their trilogy of knowledge metal/classical songs at the end of the album still stands up with anything like it, still to this day. When they broke up 15+ years ago i was bummed that I would never get to hear from them again. Lo and behold a few months ago I heard they were back together recording a new album. Part of me was happy and part of me was worried that they still didnt have it after all this time. Last night I got to hear the album for the first time. I wanted to post a review last night but I have a strict rule for reviewing albums for the site. I have to listen to any album I review a minimum of 3 times before posting my thoughts. Since then im probably on my 6th or 7th go around. Im happily writing the following track by track review.
1. Medwton - First thing I notice is Kurt sounds younger than he did 15 years ago. I like the vocals they are a little crisper than the old stuff. Great lead off track. Great speed metal riffs along with some great slower riffs mixed in. Rating: 9.25
2. A Moment in Prime - cool intro riff. Reminds me a lot of a track that would have been on the Dimensions album. Great mixture of clean and distorted guitars with keyboards layered in. One of the more progressive songs on the album. Has the unique Believer stamp all over it. Rating: 9.5
3. Stoned - First listen I thought the song was just ok. It has grown on me immensely and probably one of my favorite songs. Awesome verse guitar riffs with cool keyboards sounds and notes. Another signature type song from the band. Rating: 9.5
4. Redshift - Very cool midtempo song with cool bass lines. I love the chorus vocals mixed with the keyboard sounds. Cool slow jazzy type breakdown in middle. Rating: 9.0
5. History of Decline - Strange hypnotic type song w/ a cool horror movieish keyboard riff. Rating: 9.0
6. The Need For Conflict - Pretty cool speed metal song. It would make a good mosh pit song. Cool build up hardcore type vocals at the end of the song. One of the weaker tracks but still cool. Rating: 8.75
7. Focused Lethality - Awesome slayerish type intro. Fast, heavy and kick ass. Awesome speed metal breakdown in the middle. Kick ass freaky leads. One of the best tracks. Rating: 9.75
8. Shut Out The Sun - I hated this track at first but it quickly grew on me. Probably the most accessible of all the songs on the album. The central riff of the song is a simple fist pumping riff that kicks ass. Rating: 8.75
9. The Brave - (featuring Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage) The growling vocal trade off between the two singers is cool but the clean vocals by Howard is kinda weak. My least favorite song on the album. Some of the music though is pretty bitchin. Rating: 8.0
10. Nonsense mediated Decay - Great title for this song. This is where you hit the restart cd button. Tracks 10-13 are just noise nonsense. I like the spoked word story though. Rating: 5.0
Overall this is a great comeback album by the masters of technical thrash metal. This along with the new Kreator album are easily my favorite albums of the year so far. You know a band has an awesome catalog when this is my least favorite album of theirs so far. What are you waiting for. Go get this album. Final Rating: 9.2