Imagine ferocious, charging Machine Head riffs, with a groovy Pantera twist and that’s the best way to describe Army Rising’s sound. It’s huge, ballsy and sounds like a granny being run over a jet plane. With heavily distorted guitar lines, ravenous drum fills and harsh, bordering on growling vocals – this Ireland based metal band go full out when making their music as ferocious as humanly possible, and with some fine album artwork to go along with the killer music, Impending Chaos has to be Army Rising’s ticket into the big league. After listening to Impending Chaos you will wonder why these guys aren’t bigger and you will find yourself a new favourite band……. The mighty, Army Rising.
The guitar parts are the best thing about Impending Chaos. They come out of nowhere and when they hit sound massive. Although they may be down tuned, power chord based riffs, there is the wow factor on every second of every song and shows Tony Myler and Noel O’Brien’s
talent as guitar players. They are still young and Impending Chaos is their debut album, and to have guitar lines as good as those in ‘Lost Generation’, ‘Tyrant’ and ‘War’ on your first album, shows that you can write smoking hot guitar parts which gel really well with the rest of the band, while not getting rid of the ferocity that is needed for the music to plough through your speakers.
The production of this album sounds like it has been recorded by an artist on the likes of Roadrunner or Metal Blade records. The sound is so clean and accessible, letting the distorted parts ring clear like a Gibson put through a Marshal amp. It’s good to know such a small band had the decency to make their music as enjoyable as possible, so that songs like ‘Who I am’, ‘If You Want Peace’ and ‘Visions’ sound as professional as possible. You know a band is good when they pull no punches when making their music as sound as good as it can sound.
The only problem with Impending Chaos is that the vocalist is sometimes not powerful enough to get the vocals across over the rest of the band. Although he is a good metal vocalist, when he goes into a more melodic vocal mode – he loses his authority and voice of a front man, and is unfortunately lost in a polyrhythm of fast paced drums and guitar.
If you have never listened to Army Rising, then they need to go right at the top of your “Must check out list”. They are fast, powerful and aggressive and above all have the songs to back up their love of the ferocious riff. The English rock, but the Irish KILL! [8/10]
