Neverwake - "Vitality"

This 12 song album kicks off with "A Beginning Of The Night", it's smooth acoustic intro busts into heavy melodic thrash metal and sets the tone for the rest of the disk. Technical and catchy with clean vocals and an unforgettable chorus. There's alot of evident Metallica influence here along with some classic swedish style playing ala In Flames and Soilwork. This band even boasts modern influences via Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine, just with a way better singer and no whining, no references to relationships gone awry, no "poor me" nonsense. The songs reference darkness, monsters, killers, cemeteries, death, the basic things you would want to hear in a solid heavy metal album. Songs like "Pulse", "Widowmaker", "Unjustified", "Twisted And Wicked" and "My Darkest Divide" showcase the bands knack to mix eerie chords, memorable lyrics and unbridled musicianship to make epic songs that are worthy or radio play, but still undeniably heavy enough to keep the metal purists head banging. "Fatal Remedy" is a fist pumping anthem with a singalong chorus that deserves to be heard from the biggest stage. The guitar work is stellar, the drums are tight and the melody is infectious. Almost every song here has "Hit single" written all over it. This is the perfect example of a band that can write a huge song without losing it's pure metal integrity. How this band is not signed to a label such as Roadrunner or even Metal Blade is beyond me. "Eye Of The Killer" has a modern Iron Maiden feel, with a heavy thrashing twist reminiscent of Testament. Catchy, mosh friendly and guitar pyrotechnics that will make you snap your neck if you headbang along. "Erased" is a dark ballad fueled by acoustic guitars and piano melodies, that stands up to the best of the best ballads you have ever heard, creepy, evil and moody. If there is one thing this band proves, it's that you dont need to growl and play a thousand miles an hour to be unrelentingly heavy. You can sing clean, use a ton of melody and write big, open choruses as long as you keep the integrity in your songs and have stellar musicians playing their respective instruments. Being a guitarist myself, I cant help but glorify the riffs and solo's the band serve up in every song on this release. Neverwake showcase alot of technicality and originality, ripping apart their six strings with a barrage of twisted, melancholic riffing and searing leads. This is a very tight band, intent on taking the metal world by storm with amazing songwriting. "Vitality" is an infectious release, full of unforgettable songs, that will stick with you long after the disk ends. If only more of the big boys in the industry made music like this, a disk where you dont want to skip a track, you NEED to hear the whole thing from beginning to end, thats become a rarity in music nowadays, but Neverwake have their finger on the "Pulse". Please go find this band atfacebook.com/neverwakemusictwitter.com/neverwakemusic andreverbnation.com/neverwakemusic and go see them live if they are in your area. I can only imagine how stellar these songs are in a live setting. You Can hear cuts from this disk every Thursday night from 7pm to 10pm EST atwww.brutalexistenceradio.com