Davidian
Our Fear is Their Force

Heavy, grooving and straight thrash metal with melodic hooks and choruses. That is how the band Davidian are described by their new label Massacre Records who are releasing the germans’ third album which has a very ugly album cover art, an artwork that doesn’t even reflect what’s on the album. By German magazine Rock Hard they are compared to bands like Grip Inc. or Machine Head which are bands that makes music that I like. Might that mean that they make music that I might enjoy? Possibly it can, but of course it might also be poor or daft or something like that but I think that will all reveal itself during my clever reasoning in this review text. They are not a new band even though they are new at Massacre, they have two albums behind them before this one and it is almost ten years since they released their debut album. For this album they have found a new singer with the very masculine name of Tobi.

Musically I think what the label says in their information is more or less correct in how it sounds. Heavy and powerful, good modern sound made in the hands of Tue Madsen, when it comes to the sound there is no denying the quality of this album. Not the most groundbreaking or fantasy filled album you could imagine, it is in many regards rather typical of this modern melodic thrash metal that sometimes is called groove metal. Stylistically this album keeps to the same concept throughout, the songs are close in style and never through the album does the band take any kind of detours in their musical style. It is otherwise an album of eleven tracks that average four minutes almost exactly which would make it quite easy to understand how long the album really is.

As I stated before, it is a high quality production on this album so it sounds rather good. That is at first glance before you start examining it more closely, then you start discovering that compared to most other bands in the genre Davidian really has nothing different to offer. Their problem is that they sound more or less like everything else around, not bad but not really good either, at least not when compared. It seems a bit like a lack of fantasy in the songwriting, if they had been as clever as Apple when it comes to stealing people’s money with shit products their music would have been amazing but they aren’t. As I stated Rock Hard compared them to Grip Inc. and Machine Head which is not a good comparison as they are two of the leading bands of the genre and they are as imaginative as Apple but use their imagination for something interesting rather than causing misery to millions, Davidian are not. Anyway, don’t let my sudden loss of the thread here turn you off this release, as I said it is not really bad but just unimaginative.

Modern thrash metal in accordance with a standardised format that comply with the standards of the genre, that is what it is this album and I end up after playing with the feeling that I have heard it before. At some of those times it has also been done a lot better, not that it is terrible in any way but it does sound like everything else and it does so without any trace of own ideas and that is a bit of a turnoff. Another turnoff is the lack of something that catches your attention, there is no real standout song on the album and all of them sound quite similar which makes the album sound quite stale and stagnant.

In short, Davidian’s third piece is a well produced album with great sound but a lack of imagination and character makes it less good to listen to. It is okay, but not great. The songs are decent but they succumb to the might of the best in the genre and when looking at the competition Davidian unfortunately falls very short. So it is okay but can’t really stand up to what else is available in the genre.