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8-Point Rose: Primigenia
8-Point Rose Primigenia new music review

8-Point Rose: Primigenia

Melodic Heavy Metal
Rating: 3.0/5.0

Escape Music
www.myspace.com/8pointrose
www.8pointrose.com
Review: Craig Hartranft,  06.21.2010

8-Point Rose did not endear themselves to me when I discovered they did a tribute song to child molester, and general freak, Michael Jackson, called 'This Is It'. Frankly, it's horrible. Needless to say, my expectations were not good for their aptly titled debut Primigenia (firstborn).

Frankly, the one thing that 8-Point Rose will have to decide upon for the future is whether they want to be a classic melodic heavy metal band or simply just another metal band compromising and adapting to modern commercial trends by accenting their music with the harshness of ,dirty vocals. Honestly, they're not that well done here, and often sound contrived or simply preposterous as on The Shadow. They're simply not necessary, and add nothing to the caliber and quality of their music. It's like putting ketchup on a fine Certified Angus New York strip steak: it doesn't work.

Otherwise, Primigenia is basic melodic heavy and power metal, with emphasis on the heaviness, and the addition of the edginess from the extreme vocals. For such a young band (average age of 20), 8-Point Rose has the genre nailed with the promising tunes When Chaos Rules Our Lives, Relentless, and I Want the World to See, demonstrating some clever and catchy melodic metal. But eventually Primigenia wears on you. Whether its the annoying shrieks, grunts, and screams of modern metal or the undercurrent of monotony in the arrangements, this work succeeds at being average. The possible exceptions may be the instrumental Primigenia where producer Ronnie Björnstrom handles the acoustic guitar and, excusing the dirty vocals, the exciting Name of Time. Where it does succeed is in the contributions from some expectional guest guitar work from Peter Grehn (Morgana Lefay), Tomas Olsson (Bloodbound), Johan Reinholdz (Andromeda), and Jonas Jarlsby (Avatar).

The final disturbing observation is that this band and album come on the Escape Music label. Is Escape looking to abandon their melodic rock and metal roots in favor of more modern and extreme metal? Is it a capitulation to commercial viability for the label? I wonder, and hope not.


In Short

8-Point Rose's Primigenia is basic melodic heavy and power metal, with emphasis on the heaviness, and the addition of the edginess from the totally needless extreme vocals.

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