| Loch Vostok is a Swedish band and comes with its third album, Reveal no Secrets, to shake the waters. They claim to be an Extreme metal band but that's not the case.
With the NWOSDM lots of balances were lost and many power-progressive Scandinavian bands added some brutal vocals in an attempt to fall under the extreme-death metal category. Loch Vostok did the same but do not be fooled, this is a pure power-progressive album with occasional brutal vocals.
In fact, Teddy Möller is one of the most talented vocalists out there and in many cases can be compared with the unsurpassable Geoff Tate. Most of this album relates to current Queensrÿche sound (take Dig Deeper for example), though the sound is a little more German than American.
So what we have here is a very balanced album with outstanding vocals, some out of place growls and magnificent music. As far as guitar work goes, it's a pure power-prog melody of the highest quality that tends to get aggressive in some points with some rapid and crispy riffs. The keyboards here also stand out with great musical textures on the background that adds much to the atmosphere of this album, and some really good solos.
To sum this up Reveal No Secrets is a pretty decent album. The brutal vocals have little to add to the total sound of the album. Instead the outcome is a small identity crisis that decreases the general experience. My personal opinion is that the band should just drop the "extreme" tab from its genre and emphasize strongly and mainly at its prog-power side. Still, it's a really good album, worthy of listening to. |
