Label: Svart Records
Review by Warren Mayocchi
A certain mood is created with an album with the title of “Scars & Crosses”, so it will be interesting to hear if the songs reflect the expectation. The cover of the album shows a woman beneath the band name drawn in lettering to make Dr. Seuss proud. She has a heart in one hand and an opened vein on the other arm. The spray of cross stained blood from the wound and mystical symbols dress enhances the mystery. High Fighter are relatively young as a band, though the members have been creating music for years – you can hear the experience in their instrumental mastery. In terms of sound they are more heavy rock than anything, but do label themselves as heavy stoner bluescore. Vocally most of the lyrics are sung with a lot of attitude in a clean vocal style, though there are growled and screamed passages in most songs. The songs follow a straightforward guitars, drums, and vocals rock approach with heavy riffs, melodic soloing. “Blinders” is a fast and aggressive track with a music video to experience High Fighter. It provides a good indication of what you will hear on “Scars & Crosses” as many of the songs include relatively similar patterns, “The Gatekeeper” and “Down to the Sky” both add noticeable solos to the song formula. My favourite song is “Darkest Days”, building like a storm from an already frantic beginning to an onslaught of guitars and screamed emotion. Closing and title track, “Scars & Crosses”, seems to be almost a mash-up of everything the band can do. The full strength music and harsh vocals add an emotional tortured element to the music in keeping with the scars promised in the title. It is not immediately clear how “crosses” relate to the band’s sound, it may be more in keeping with the lyrical content which is purposefully loose. The band want the listener to find their own meaning in the songs, so the promise of “Scars & Crosses” is open for interpretation, but most likely it is those things we carry with us through life.
Rating – 80/100
Tracklist
- A Silver Heart
- Darkest Days
- The Gatekeeper
- Blinders
- Portrait Mind
- Gods
- Down to the Sky
- Scars & Crosses
Line Up
- Mona Miluski – Vocals
- Christian “Shi” Pappas – Guitar
- Ingwer Boysen – Guitar
- Constantin Wüst – Bass
- Thomas Wildelau – Drums & backing vocals
Links