ARAKAIN - SALTO MORTALE
A DARING LEAP.
Arakain's fourth studio album came out in 1993 and it is very Metallica-inspired, there are a few riffs that brings my mind to both "The Black Album" as well as "Master of Puppets". You can clearly hear that this is a 90's release, the band has slowed down a bit, just like Metallica had at the time. This is softer and more radio-friendly than their previous material even though Arakain was never played on Swedish radio so I doubt it got any airtime outside the Czech Republic at all.
I guess the musical trends of the day had reached the Czech Republic by 1993. But this is not a grunge-album no, it's more in the lines of early-90's Metallica and Megadeth with a dose 80's classic hardrock. Salto Mortale hasn't got the speed of Arakain's first two albums (Thrash the Trash & Schizofrenie), the emphasis is more
one the songstructures and it's built around Aleš Brichta's rough yet melodic singing. His style is more of a traditional hardrock singer, the music is sung in their native Czech language so expect some slavic sounding vocals that sounds like Russian to my untrained ears.
. I miss the old Arakain here, this is a bit too brushed up and polished for my taste. They certainly lost some speed on Salto Mortale because I think the band excels when they play in full throttle. A song like Kleptoman really brings out the best in the band. It's a solid speed metal-number in an ocean of mid-tempo semi-thrashers. Salto Mortale means 'A dangerous and daring jump with possibly lethal outcome' and I think this sums up this album quite well, they took a leap towards where they saw things moving within the industy and by doing so they risked the credibility that they've built so far. This wasn't the death blow to the band but I think that I lost interest in the band when they wen't down a more commercial route.
Rating:
| INFO |
Label: Popron Year: 1993 Country: Czech Republic Duration: 47:19 Tracks: 10 Genre: Power/Thrash Reviewer: Ruthless Rating: 2.5/5 | ||
| TRACKS | LINEUP | |
| Ales Brichta - Vocals Jirka Urban - Guitars Mirek Mach - Guitars Zdenek Kub - Bass Marek Zezulka - Drums |
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