Marionette
Nerve

Last time I took a look at Swedish band Marionette it was with their album prior to this one called Enemies which I thought was a terrible album, they had an awful vocalist and their music felt forced and incoherent. That was 2009, in december 2011 this album was released, in physical form by the band themselves and by Pivotal Rockordings for the digital version. The CD is numbered and signed as requested and it also contains two bonus tracks so there is quite the case for the physical version if you are a fan of Marionette which I haven’t been so far at least. For this album the band has changed their vocalist which of course cannot be seen as anything but positive and the two years since the last might have given them time to read my review and improve on things I did not like.

I think the music of Marionette is in its foundation similar to the one we heard on Enemies but with some fundamental differences, the singer sounds more like your average Gothenburg brand death metal singer in contrast to the brutal death metal vocals that was on the latest album. The melodies take up more room this time and are not drowned in heaviness, the sounds is more mature and a little more polished without sounding overpolished and plasticky. The music can be described as the Gothenburg brand death metal, melodic powerful riffs and an almost croaking singer, much like the genre in general. Their style does not deviate much from that genre either even though the album is quite varied stylistically, without moving outside the framework of their style of course. The digital version of the album which is the one I got to review has twelve tracks and it plays for little over 45 minutes, as already stated the physical release has two bonus tracks so it will be maybe eight to ten minutes longer I guess.

This album is a clear improvement from the rather worthless album prior to it, in part it is due to a better singer but mostly thanks to much better songs. Especially track four Remember Your Name is quite great and also track five is a good one, the album is in general quite good and that is despite the new singer being quite bad too even though he is much better than his predecessor. I think the vocals sound a bit like a raven with a sore throat which is not a good sound for a singer, other than the vocals I do think this is a rather good death metal album. Sure it is not the most unique or fantastic or different but it is still filled with good songs and it sounds rather good despite having a sub-par vocalist.

Marionette has doubled their rating in Hallowed from the prior album to this, they would probably have gotten an even better score had the singer not been so daft. Still, when thinking of what an awful album Enemies was and how uninterested I therefore was in the band it is quite an improvement this album and could they only find a good vocalist I think that they would evolve into a very interesting band.

So in the end there is a few things to deduce from this release, first of all they have improved both in terms of musical quality and vocalist. Secondly, the reviews were a mix of average and great, none said that the album was bad so if you are a fan of the Gothenburg style of death metal I am sure this is a safe bet. Thirdly, they do still have a lot to improve, and fourthly I can only say that it is a good album and maybe a little bit of a surprise.