I know they say that you should never judge a book from its cover. But haven't we all bought a heavy metal album, basing our purchase on nothing but the gory promises the cover artwork provided us with? Haven't you been there, in that record store, with a CD or a even a vinyl in your hands and thought 'fuck it, I have no idea what this sounds like, but I must own this!' I have. It isn't always the best thing to do, but it often worked with metal bands.
Now, where am I heading with this? I'm saying the cover of Greek Potergeist's album 'Swampires' wouldn't have made me buy it. I honestly didn't know what to expect when I
received it in the post the other day. Again, you shouldn't judge from the cover. What is behind this particular cover is a really cool heavy rock album!
If you're purely a thrash metal, or death metal fan, or whatever, it won't work for you, but if you're a fan of heavy music, you should give it a go. There's a lot of great riffing on the entire album. This already starts off with the first track after the intro, the sort-of title track, Swampire; this song is totally infectious and has a near addictive riff. The 'aah, let's just hear this one once more' kind of song.
The Greeks have a US sound, the album has the kind of thick and heavy production I love in a heavy rock album and, as I've already mentioned, that rock solid riffing.
The singer, Alex S. Wamp (haha...), has an excellent rock voice, and he masters both clean vocals, rough/snarling vocals and screams. The only thing is the completely weird pronounciation of some words, but if you can keep yourself from reading along the lyrics you probably won't even notice...
Also, the track Rock Fairy is a bit of an overlong ballady thing, which could easily have been edited a bit, but the next song easily makes up for it and makes you forgive the past sins. The Time Has Come tends to be a filler, but those were my points of negative criticism.
Excellent album - recommended listening!
