It's not easy to be a prophet in your
home town and with metal band such as the high
technical Meshuggah and the solid power metal
legends Nocturnal Rites from Umeå, Sweden it
hasn't been an easy way to be named the best
metal band in town.
Persuader has been active since the end
of the 90's and released their debut album 'The
Hunter' in 2000. In 2004 came 'Evolution' and
the third disc was on the market in 2006. Almost
eight years have passed since last album and
finally this great band has gotten their things
together on this new album called 'The Fiction
Maze'. The band describes the sound on this new
album with: “A lot of hard work was put into
creating the perfect mix of everything we've
done so far, we've expanded on the Persuader
sound while keeping true to the core that is the
band; heavy riffing, strong melodies, pounding
rhythms and soaring vocals.” I'm actually prepared to agree with these words to this stiff
metal album.
Tons of heavy and thundering metal are
pouring out of my speakers and Jens Carlsson is
singing/screaming with a force and energy that
shakes the foundations of my house. He hasn't the
ultra high pitch vocals as many of the power
metal singers is born with, no he has his own
unique tone and an powerful and strong voice,
which is harsh and sharp as a ninja sword.
The heaviness of the tracks is peddling
between some melodic metal tracks like the
brilliant 'One Lifetime', 'Heathen' and the
pompous and Arabic? metal song 'Sons of Sodom'
and the thrash metal tunes 'The Fiction Maze',
'InSect' and 'Falling Faster'. The wide and
thrilling blend of metal on 'The Fiction Maze'
is full covered and Persuader isn't easy to put
in a specific metal folder. The heavy musical
cannon is firing different kinds of metal missiles
and the tracks explodes with various effects.
This album was originally meant to be
released in 2011 and these extra years of work
have really been worth the wait. 'Sent to the
Grave' and 'War' are two quite progressive 'kick
in the groin' metal tunes. Just as several metal
hammers strikes extremely clearly and hard on
the anvil.
One of my favourite songs is the
'half-symphonic' 'Deep in the Dark' with slower
tempo and more of a classic power metal vein.
'The Fiction Maze' is an album, which really can
withstand and the exposure of plenty of spins.
In the absence of new discs from
Nocturnal Rites, I can say with a proud voice
say that Persuader has stepped out of their
shadow and deserves to be called Umeå's Heavy
Metal Kings. Jens and co. have done a massive and
very well thought out piece of in the MMM (Mixed Melodic
Metal) department...
Line-up:
Jens Carlsson - Vocals
Fredrik Hedström - Bass
Emil Norberg - Guitars
Daniel Sundbom - Guitars
Efraim Juntunen – Drums
