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Army Rising is SURELY the best thing to come out of Ireland since..... well, since ANYTHING. This is how the info sheet starts. The record company puts the bar very high for this young band and with such words my expectations are sky high off course. The band is influenced by Pantera, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth and Parkway Drive. Bands with different styles and not easy to combine if you ask me, but maybe ........ they can?!

The song "Who I Am" sets off and the first thing that strikes me is the production, what a crap one; most of the demos I still have from back in the eighties sound even better. A dull sound with too much low (bass).  Listen for example to the drums, did a deaf person do the mix? The false vocals of Noel are a bad copy of James Hetfield (and he isn't a good singer). The timing of Noel is even worse than that of my ex-wife, singing lessons might help out there. The songs are loose sand, they sometimes jump from one tempo into another without making any sense. Just listen to the song "War" and you will understand. Isn't there anything good about this album then? Well, there are some good ideas and the riffs ("Tyrant") are heavy and you can hear the members enthusiasm, but that is far from enough.

Fortunately for the members they are all very young and that gives them the time to go back in the rehearsal room to write better songs and maybe try again in a few years. 

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