When a label or promotion company sends you the promo material for a release, they are determined to put a label that everyone understands on the music. This makes it easier to marked and therefore it is fairly important. Some have of course given up and take pride in claiming that they cannot be labelled. Which of course is nonsense, because you can label anything if you really want to.

Anyway, what I'm working towards telling you here is that you sometimes wonder if the people who write the promotional material have listened to the music they send out.

Take German In Slumber. The promo sheet clearly states that this is melodic death metal. I agree to the extent that there are melodic solos and a few harmonies. Other than that, we're further into deathcore territory than we are in Gothenburg. Due to the vocal of Wolfgang and the general use of breakdowns and blastbeat drumming throughout the album, the whole thing smells far more of Heaven Shall Burn and Maroon than In Flames.

If you approach it as such, this is indeed a decent album with tons of great riffs. What fails in my view are the two or three magic songs that pull the entire album above the level of all the rest of the scene. They are simply not there, and that leaves In Slumber in a position just below the greats.

Good album, a good band, but still some way to go in terms of songwriting.