Style: melodeath (mixed vocals)
Review by: Daniel
Country: Germany
Release date: 05-01-2019
NOTE: This album was originally included in the January 2019 issue of The Progressive Subway
If someone were to play “stock” music of melodic death metal, Cloudbreaker would be what you’d hear. The music is generally tasteful, the musicianship is good, but they don’t explore new territory or make themselves stand out. And this is my main issue with this band.
This lack of exploration brings me to one of the biggest issues I have with this band: their self proclaimed classification as progressive metal. To me the only progressive aspects of their music are their lyrics (focus on sci-fi and dystopian themes with obscure references), but I believe that this really isn’t enough to make them qualify as Progressive Metal. Sure, I spotted a couple grooves in 7 for a few bars, but I would argue that even the use of odd time signatures for a couple bars in a single song isn’t enough to make something immediately classify as Progressive.
But even though this band isn’t very progressive and they aren’t the most original sounding, they have some great riffs and grooves. Maurice Arnhold, the vocalist, is very powerful, but I’m not familiar enough with the genre to make a clear determination on the quality of his singing. Deniz Nitt, the lead guitarist has some great chops, but sometimes his solos sound too “shreddy” for my delicate traditional prog ears. Julian Dietrich kills it on drums and the man has some serious chops, but often his parts sound far too formulaic, and this makes the drumming come across as “boring” or “lazy.” I’m sure the bass player is great, but I can’t hear him in the mix whatsoever…
Clearly, all of these musicians are great at their instruments, but unfortunately the songwriting is where this album really suffers. The structure of the songs are totally predictable and this really prevents them from going outside of the box and getting a progressive sound to their band. Their transitions also need, well, much improvement. In particular, they like the “bell of death” transition, and at this point it’s so trite and predictable that it’s just painful, even for someone that is new to this subgenre like I am.
Overall, this album is an easy listen, and I think only the most ardent lovers of melodic death can appreciate the album, as this really is bog standard.
Recommended tracks: Dystopia/The Sunken Moon, Confinement is Finite
Recommended for fans of: Children of Bodom, Wintersun, Dark Tranquillity
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Independent
Cloudbreaker is:
– Maurice Arnhold (vocals)
– Denis Nitt (guitars)
– Julian Dietrich (drums)
– Niko Efthymiou (bass)
– Lukas Dietrich (guitars)
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