Midgard- Satellite Review

 

Hailing from the rocky state of Colorado, Midgard have released their first full length album, Satellite. The death metal quartet draw influences from death, black, and some power metal. Reunited just last year, they're out to show the world what they can do. 

Combinations of death metal and power metal usually make for some interesting songs. There's a variety of harsh and clean vocals throughout the album, as well as aggressive and melodic riffs. "Until the Sirens Call" really embellishes the blend of genres. The harsh singing in the verses and the clean singing in the chorus is rather nifty. And face pounding riffs aren't too shabby either, but the tinkling piano kind of draws away from the aggression. "Oracle" and "Waves of Acheron" have the better pieces of guitar work, "Waves" has a cool broken chord pattern in the beginning and then breaks out into some toxic riffs and "Oracle" has a great midtempo ball buster of a riff, as well as some good leads.

The album certainly has it's moments, but there are a few places -just a few- that seem off. This might sound blasphemous, considering the band has a black metal tinge to it, but a little bit more production wouldn't have hurt. It's very raw sounding, which is great, but they aren't the type that's playing jackhammer blastbeats and tremolo picking at 300 bpm (production wouldn't be necessary then really). In some moments, the clean singing can throw the song off the rails, like the middle part in "Absolute Zero Heart," and some of the solos are off key it seems, but perhaps that's just nitpicking.

Overall, it's a pretty decent output (I wouldn't review it if I didn't remotely like it). It sounds like a raw form of Crimson Shadows, which is an awesome thing in itself. They're officially releasing the album in December, so check them out if you want a physical copy. Go listen to them.