Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz | Detailed or mini-review submissions: song, EP/album | Suggest an artist

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Fall of Eden - Wargasm (song review) |Fall of Eden, The Warrior, 2012|

This Illinois based band was founded in 2003 and have opened live for a variety of well known artists so far such as Opeth, Devin Townsend, Devil Driver and many more. Oriented towards the European black metal scene, Viking-related legends and mysticism, Fall Of Eden recorded their newest album entitled The Warrior in 2012 and it has already been receiving a lot of positive feedback from both listeners and music journalists.

"Wargasm" is the third song on the tracklist. It begins with characteristic black metal atmospheres, these coincide with a wall of brutal speed metal drums that are accompanied by not much slower guitar riffs and a lead guitar melody all falling into singularity. After this intro, the listener is exposed to the growling vocals of Russ Knöbel, who sounds as vile as a lead singer of a metal band could ever be expected to. In the meantime, well controlled guitar riffs intertwine with the drums to keep pounding the listeners ears as though they were a hail storm that destroys everything during hot, steamy days.

After 2 minutes 30 seconds, the vocals leave more space for melodic, yet powerful riffs so that guitarists - Taylor Cooper and Steve Høwe as well as drummer Evan Howe can battle each other. The virtuoso riffs seem to be inspired by 80's hard rock & heavy metal music. A careful listener however may also catch progressive metal influences in both the lead guitar and bass tracks. Since Russ plays bass and performs vocals in the band, the song arrangements were tailor made so he can easily switch between performance duties. It might have otherwise been quite a complex task to play the bass while growling lyrics, especially live.

While the column of guitars grow, a solid conjunction of drums and bass doesn't let them fly too far. The vocals return shortly after approximately 2 minutes, however the moods (and the listener's attention) have already been stolen at this point by all the heavy, interlacing guitar riffs.
The song is very professionally articulated by the artist. A tightly filled and extended outro finishes "Wargasm" with a fade out, although listeners will still hear the remnants of the memorable lead guitar solos in their heads long after the song is over.

Indeed, the Vikings came to North America in the 10th century. Those no-compromise and stright-forward Nordic sailors went there to build settlements in Greenland and explore the ocean as well as near-by lands. Though, they didn't stay permanently in North America, perhaps due to unexpected encounters with Native Americans.
Europe, on the contrary, has been influenced by a Viking presence for many centuries. The traces of their heritage have been smuggled into our culture (gods, heroes, legends, poetry and fantasy literature), calendar (names of the days), science and travel (astronomy, navigation) as well as art (music, architecture, ornaments). There are still a variety of annual Viking (and Slavic) festivals in Europe where you can dress, eat, fight and talk like people did over a 1000 years ago.

It may be a good idea to bring these influences to the attention of American music fans again to entice another metal music subgenre since there's an open market for it. Hollywood has produced several high budget fantasy movies based on various, more or less credible stories that incorporate, for instance Viking fighting tactics, 'fashion' and jewelery (you've probably seen Conan the Barbarian, 13th Warrior or Pathfinder). Still, it seems that European and Russian bands comprise a majority of artist interested in this fashion of metal when it comes to including these themes of music-related patterns in their songs as opposed to many American artist.

"Wargasm" is a composition that dominates in mood. It is strongly animated and filled with heavy, rough, yet smooth virtuoso guitar riffs. Because of this, many fans of metal music will be convinced to reach out for The Warrior album, which is available at most major on-line stores.

(Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, April 11th, 2012. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens)

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