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If you meet the guys from TIDES OF VIRTUE somewhere at the street you would say that they are rather nice-looking boys, a little bit sophisticated from the urban life, and loving the romance of the club culture and perhaps the skateboard as well. If you play their new album you would say the same. Till the 40th second… Brutal death metal nails us after the acoustic intro. Melodic Scandinavian death and some hints of the early PARADISE LOST are melted with DISMEMBER guitar sound and pressing slow parties in the veins of BOLT THROWER. Low riffs and high screams are combined in fast and slow parties, where the traditional and the modern go hand in hand. Oh, Lord, what drives these children to behave in such a way?!
TIDES OF VIRTUE are not classic death metal band. A tiny line of hardcore brutality and surprisingly melodic moments set their style in the frame of modern metal. The guitar solos could be included in each heavy metal album. The instrumental “Felo De Se” (sixth track) achieves an insane composer’s pretention without being so important.
In reference to death metal TIDES OF VIRTUE are like The North Sea. The early English death flows over the edge into Swedish melodic brutality. That is why appears the emotion that the development of the band goes into North-East direction (we continue the comparison in a geographical framework), because the last three songs from the album sound as THE HAUNTED, even with technical thrash riff and the melody which distinguish each track.
There is something catching in this band at first listening. Even something more – this is music for extremists and it gives pleasure. It remains unexplainable for me why these guys look like in such a way? Why their merchandise looks like a fashionable collection? And why they have so polite logo and artwork? TIDES OF VIRTUE are a real finding!
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