Demos

Attica Rage - In Concert With The Mirror

Richey 11/12/2005

Rating: 3/5

This 5 track, 22 minute EP arrived with SEVEN A4 pieces of paper with timelines, reviews, quotes, and tour dates for the band. From the info given, it appears that they're gaining a fair amount of support, and even Zakk Wylde has been complementing them. They're seemingly a band that split up for 8 years after gaining a fair amount of fans in the Scottish underground metal scene, and are back again, ready to take on the world.

They begin the EP sounding like they're going to be a power metal band of the average persuasion. The vocals kick in, and remind me of Black Label Society, except not quite as Ozzy-like, but the actual melody style etc is fairly similar; good old classic rock-esque vocals, but not overly interesting, and the vocalist's range doesn't seem great. He's certainly solid, and the style is similar throughout, bar in 'Don't Lie To Me', where the style is more mellow, and provide a nice contrast. The lyrics aren't of the highest standard, and are fairly 'sixth form', but then again, lyrics are never an important aspect in riff-based rock like this, and so are effectively irrelevant in what I think of this album.

The players are obviously all of a very good standard, the riffs are meaty, the solos are fairly flashy, and most importantly fit the songs, and the drummer has some very nice fills throughout, and some very nice rocking beats, and is probably one of my favourite things to listen to in this band. My main gripe is for the synths, which are seemingly played by one of the guitarists, and aren't too great. The tones don't really fit the rest of the music, and they're fairly simplistic, and are too high in the mix - in my opinion they'd be a more appealing band if they got a dedicated keyboardist, and put the keys lower in the mix so they'd sound more like a good meaty hard rock band, and not a hard rock band that want to have the commercial success of Nightwish. Then again, the synths only feature heavily in most parts of the EP, so aren't something that really affect enjoyment of the music.

If you're looking for a damn solid hard rock act, look here. They're certainly no pub-rock band, and have a sound that stretches far beyond the underground scene, so hopefully they'll achieve wider success with the record labels that are seemingly showing interest in them.

http://www.atticarage.com