Wakener – Wakener (2015)

Receiving music from new and promising relatively unknown bands is one of the best perks of writing for Infernal Masquerade. Today we have one of the good ones with Wakener and their self-titled debut EP. Featuring four songs and around 18 minutes of music, this release showcases a band that perfectly executes Melodic Death Metal and traditional Death Metal in a very old-school way, this allows them to stand out from the hundreds of over-the-top MeloDeath outfits that have plagued the scene in the last few years.

Opening with the superbly catchy “Life of Fear”, we have a grainy production that perfectly captures the melodic riffs and the rough harsh vocals. The band focuses exclusively in crafting melodic passages that are perfect for headbanging, similar to what The Elysian Fields did many years ago. Continuing with the equally impressive “The Plague”, the band does a great job in crafting nifty melodies alongside tight drumming and the perfect tempo for this kind of music.

Things get a bit darker and more ‘regular’ Death Metal-ish with the sickening “Ugglith”, an interesting piece that breaks up the flow of the first two tracks and shows a different and darker side of the band. Closing with the Cannibal Corpse-ish “From Light Came Darkness”, the band goes full on 90’s Death Metal on us and delivers a very solid headbanging closing that comes back to merge with more of their first two songs influences in a very crafty way.

As a whole this EP is quite a solid effort from this upcoming band. The musicianship is quite high and the songs are very catchy, making it one of the most engaging self-released albums of this genre in 2015. The band still needs to fully discover their identity or properly integrate their two main influences: Melodic Death Metal and Death Metal, since some of the tracks sound a bit disconnected. Overall, if you like old-school Melodic Death Metal, go and check this guys out.

Label: Self-Released

Release: 2015

Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Country: Finland