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Metalgunz: Never What It Seems

Metalgunz: Never What It Seems

Hard Rock/Heavy Metal
Rating: 4.0/5.0

Sonic Cynosure Records
www.metalgunz.com
www.myspace.com/metalgunz
Review: Craig Hartranft,  08.16.2009

Never What It Seems is an apt title for Metalgunz' debut release. Hailing from Singapore and deriving their name from two of their influences Metallica and Guns N Roses, Metalgunz offers a collection of songs that span classic hard rock and metal, on the first seven songs, to more modern alternative rock, on the last five songs. Yes, the division is quite clear, and Metalgunz succeeds on both accounts though sometimes imperfectly.

The first half of Never What It Seems begins with some fundamental hard rock on Smack Me to Death and Mosquitoes. Both are blessed with strong groove from the rhythm section, excellent guitar solos, and an ambitious lead vocal performance with the latter having nonsensical and inane lyrics. From here, things move more towards the metal side. You blends basic heavy metal with some thrashy hardcore swings. Blood Harvest, Leather Face Man and Chapter 1 all invoke classic San Francisco thrash with the first sounding more like Exodus or Testament and the latter two more like Metallica or Megadeth. The choice of the three is Chapter 1 with its significantly better arrangement and fret work.

Moving into the latter half of Never What It Seems, Metalgunz invokes a modern alternative rock motif reflecting a style more akin to Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and other bands of the 1990's who turned rock and metal on it's head. Metalgunz actively combines more acoustic guitar with Taufik's grounded and passionate vocals. Of the five, Insanity & Suicide and Ocean Ways are more up tempo rockers. In between, the earthy alt rock side of Metalgunz holds sway. Mystifying Further Sensations of Souls, Promise, and Withered are guided by excellent acoustic guitar and honest vocals. Conversely, all three sound so similar to have no nuance or distinction to identify them individually.

On their debut work Never What It Seems, Metalgunz displays their influences delivering solid hard rock and some old school thrash in the first half and more modern alt rock on the second half. However, there's no conflict here as Metalgunz performs both quite well. Recommended!

In Short

On their debut work Never What It Seems, Metalgunz displays their influences delivering solid hard rock and some old school thrash in the first half and more modern alt rock on the second half. However, there's no conflict here as Metalgunz performs both quite well.

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