Rest in Fear – Insert Yourself CD review

The world already has the likes of Children of Bodom, In Flames and Wintersun, pioneering the magnificent genre that is melodic death metal, and with so many up and coming bands experimenting with this style and completely and utterly not being able to capture that manic but never the less beautiful sound, it is relieving to know that Austrian based metal maniacs Rest in fear are still flying the melodic death metal flag proud and high with their latest album Insert Yourself. Following in the footsteps of their forefathers, Rest in fear combine: Shred-tastic guitar lines, twinkling keyboard solos and a haunting, demonic vocal parts to form one of the finest melodic death metal albums by an underground metal band of the past five years.

Kicking off to a superb start with the keyboard driven song ‘Hidden Beyond the means’, it is clear that Rest in Fear are able to hook the listener from the word go, catching them off guard as they slam into a dirty, crust infected, heavy guitar line that takes over from the superb melodic intro played so beautifully on the keyboard. Insert Yourself is full of moments like this, mixing both melody with aggression to form a selection of songs such as ‘The Ending Walk’ and ‘In These Little Moments’ which would appeal just as much to the fans of bands such as Dragonforce and Dream Theater.

Insert Yourself is such as diverse album and being different is the way forward in heavy metal. Sure, Rest in Fear may not be inventing the wheel, but by Jove they are sticking to what they do best. They are playing to their strengths on this album and experimenting a little bit further to see how things would sound if you placed a long progressive solo there, an acoustic intro here, start it with a keyboard opening. The outcome is a huge success and when tracks like ‘Aurora’, ‘Brand New Day’ and ‘1000 Dreams’ kick it, they will leave you both mesmerised and mind blown by the awesome musicianship and song writing skills present in these songs!

This is only Rest in Fear’s debut album, and as brilliant as some of these songs may be, the production of Insert Yourself doesn’t give these songs quite the justice and honour they deserve. At some points on the record, especially on the more ballad based songs, you can hear a lot of background noise and crackling from the microphone. If it wasn’t for the poor song quality on a few of the slower more surreal songs on Insert Yourself, then it would be a flawless release, worthy of the title of one of the best debut melodic death metal releases to grace the planet.

As soon as Insert Yourself comes to a close, you will be begging for more, wanting another golden plated melodic death metal release – jammed full of powerful guitar lines, catchy choruses, and yes, magical keyboard parts. Well done guys, we can’t wait for album number two to come out! [8/10]

About Del Preston

So there I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweet shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's me and Keith Moon and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweet shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shop owner and his son, that's a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business really. But sure enough, I got the M&Ms and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show.