Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Raider "Urge to Kill" Review




          "Urge to Kill", the debut EP/Demo from KW Death Metal band Raider just dropped over this past weekend, this is a release we have been looking forward to so we had to dive right into it. The band is made up of a couple of relatively well known locals including Kyle Edissi (Aepoch, Invicta) and Brandon Sanders (The Wormwood Scrubs) as well as some new talent like vocalist Angelo Bonaccorso, so let's hop into it!


          "Urge to Kill" is a total of three tracks with what we will say is two separate "modes", the first of which is an oldschool style Melodic Death Metal and damn is it done well. "Phlebotomized" (the act of puncturing a vain, if anyone is curious) and the title track, "Urge to Kill" would both fall under this umbrella. While obviously the two songs are not exactly the same, "Phlebotomized" is a straight forward Melodic Death Metal song in the vein of Amon Amarth or Unleashed, while "Urge to Kill" takes on a bit more of a hectic approach, including straight speed in both the main instrumentals and solos much more like that of The Black Dahlia Murder or even a little more closely, Skeletonwitch.


          "Nebulous" is the only out of place track on this album. While the other two take on a much more Melodic Death Metal approach, this one seems to aim more for a Melodic Thrash style, which all in all isn't a bad thing. The song itself is good, although it seems to suffer from a bit of an identity crisis, trying to make the song too much like the other two while trying to take it in a different direction at the same time. The effect this has on the song is the fact that it does become a bit of a missmash which does hinder it a little bit and unfortunately made it a bit stale.


          All in all, "Urge to Kill" is a great first release from a band still trying to find their voice. Raider took chances with this release and honestly for the most part it paid off, my biggest suggestion to the guys in Raider would be lean more towards the Melodic Death Metal side as those tracks are killer pieces of music. Keep an eye out for these guys as if they find their stride, they'll be going far with their music!


          Raider will be playing their release show March 30th alongside Invicta, Rippr'd and Woofout at The Boathouse in Kitchener! also, CLICK HERE to be taken to the bands Bandcamp page and check out "Urge to Kill"


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