Album Review: Angel Rising – Angel Rising (Music-Records)

Angel Rising is a melodic death metal project initiated in 2018 by guitar player Listenangel. He was originally invested in his youtube channel ‘listenangel’ born in 2010 and specialized in guitar shredding, virtuosos guitar solos, tutorials and heavy metal original instrumentals. Thanks to the success of the channel (more than one million views and thousands of subscribers) famous drummer Kevin Talley (who played for Dying Fetus, Suffocation and many more) contacted him and offered his services.

Years later it gave birth to the song ‘From the Grave To The Light’, track number three on this album. Between 2018 and 2020, Listenangel composed and recorded seven more tracks, playing all instruments and vocal parts with the help of two talented and experienced metal vocalists : Hermyth and M Fox singing additional vocals on tracks two, three and five.

On April 18th 2020, Angel Rising’s self titled first album was released on all online platforms and now, France’s Music-Records will release the physical edition on October 30th 2020.

Every bit the DIY project, it’s nice to see Angel Rising find some success with this release. As any band will tell you; likes, follows and subscribes rarely translate into actual solid gain. So it’s risky for Listenangel to throw all his weight behind this project after making a successful YouTube channel.

Does it pay off? Absolutely as what we get with this self-titled release is variety laden death metal with a ton of aggression and plenty of guitar flair. The latter you would certainly expect but it’s good to see that it never crosses into self-indulgent territory. Proven by the fact that Listenangel provided some of the vocals and employed the services of others elsewhere. This could very well have been non-vocalised intensity where the guitar was king. Happily, that’s not the case. Although it would be a lie to not acknowledge there is a ton of thick riffing, wild shredding and soloing to be found throughout. Tears of War in particular shows this with some aplomb.

If there’s one noticeable issue, it’s probably the overall production of the album. A little too bassy on some tracks, like you might be hearing them through a thin wall rather than being in the same room. It’s not a massive complaint as it’s still very clear and the nuances are not buried, but it’s noticeable on the likes of The Pain You Can’t Deny and From the Grave to the Light.

Angel Rising – Angel Rising Full Track Listing:

1. Pull the Trigger
2. The Pain You Can’t Deny
3. Disgrace
4. From the Grave to the Light
5. Kneel
6. Tears of War
7. Rise
8. Ordo Ab Chao
9. The Pain You Can’t Deny (Instrumental)

Links

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