Independent Release
Review by Tony Cannella
Karkaos is a melodic death metal band from Montreal, Canada. They formed in 2003 and released their debut EP “In Burning Skies” in 2011. Now the band returns with their debut full-length “Empire”. Since the release of “Empire”, Karkaos has parted ways with lead vocalist Veronica O. Rodriguez and replaced her with Viky Boyer. It remains to be seen how this will affect the band going forward but on “Empire”, Karkaos delivers a staggeringly hungry debut.
After the intro “Ode to La Resistance” the opening track “Leap of Faith” kicks in. To put it quite simply Veronica’s vocals are quite fierce and intense, that fact is driven home with a huge exclamation point on the song “Leap of Faith”. She shifts effortlessly from extreme metal vocals to a more of a power metal style. The band also infuses some different elements to go along with their extreme-ness, for example one can hear elements of symphonic metal, power metal, classic metal and thrash. “Depths of Madness” is up next and is as fierce as the previous tune. “Empire” just keeps rolling with the crushing “The Condemned”, “Echoes of Perpetuity”, “Awaiting the Clock’s Last Turn” and the huge 8-minute closer “Eden”.
“Empire” is an album that just oozes intensity and ferocity and also includes some little twists on the melodic death genre. Karkaos are not trying to re-invent the wheel (or death metal for that matter) but there is still something fresh about their approach
Rating – 87/100
Tracklist
- Ode to La Resistance
- Leap of Faith
- Depths of Madness
- The Condemned
- Echoes of Perpetuity
- Blood, Sweat and Tears
- Dusk
- Fallen Empire
- Awaiting the Clock’s Last Turn
- Eden
Line Up
- Veronica Ortiz Rodriguez – Lead Vocals
- Samael Pelletier – Guitar
- Vincent Harnois – Guitar & Backing Vocals
- Eddy Levitsky – Bass
- Sebastien Belanger-Lapierre – Keyboards
- Normand Martel – Drums
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