Style: industrial, progressive, heavy metal
Label: Blade Records
Year: 2010
Home: Germany
Members: Carpeduke ~ vocals/guitar
Ron Gardner ~ guitar/b. vocals
Susanne Schafer ~ bass
M. Poco ~ drums
A bit of glam, goth, electronica, old fashioned metal, pop rock, & even Latin make up Carpeduke on his fourth release. Carpeduke is one of those musicians who doesn't believe in limiting his creativity to any one musical direction, which is why one will hear the song "Ozzy & The Bat" sung in English, Spanish, & German & there's even an Italian song ("Italiana"). While "Maria Aranga", an absolute highlight of the album completely worth hunting up, & "Coco Loco" put Latin rhythms into a metal setting with amazing fireworks. I'm not familiar with Spanish metal music, but is there a heavy metal scene out there that lays down ethnic conga line rhythms with heavy metal guitars where the two sound like they were meant to be together & were born together back in the earliest days of metal? After hearing Carpeduke's experiments I want there to be such a music scene & I want to know about it, if it doesn't already exist. Further, on "Angelsdust - Americana" & "Wicked Sound" one hears a melody that might be found on an 80's Rush album, primarily due to the singing, while the fan favorite "Vomit Of Evil" is reminiscent of Rammstein. Now, this is not to say that Carpeduke is an imitator & has no sound of his own. Quite the opposite. He does what every artist strives to do - not be caged into, borrow from one's inspirations & make an outcome that sounds original & personal. This is an album full of moods, matching its linguistical & stylistic diversity, versus wild guitars & super headbanging metal. The good thing about this is I feel comfortable recommending his album to people who like progressive rock & heavy metal, but yet also people, like myself, who get fascinated by musicians braving musical boundaries & going for more ethnic approaches. While Carpeduke does a great job at keeping some common sound throughout the whole affair, a task easier said then done when going from heavy metal to electronica to who knows where. Though, this common string is probably a primary factor in why many of the songs tended to fall on the more safe side to my ears. But, this is a minor complaint & is a double sided coin as its the safeness that opens up Carpeduke to a bigger audience. Carpeduke is setting himself up for a mis-step though, something I'm sure he already knows, as the diversity of music tightens the microscope over him. As long he never forgets to let the music come first & not the experiment, or don't forget to let loose & just head bang because well done that's just as impressive as singing in multiple languages, he'll do fine on his fifth release.
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