Slechtvalk
Where Wandering Shadows And Mists Collide

Peregrine from The Netherlands are returning with their fifth album, an album where some wandering shadows meets some mist – or something. It has an interesting cover artwork, it looks kind of magical and exciting – too bad it doesn’t sound as good as it looks or as epic as the title seems to indicate.

Epic extreme metal is what the press sheet claims, and extreme metal feels rather appropriate while I don’t really think that it is very epic. It has some melodies but the epic side is strangely absent. And I would describe it as sounding a tad on the old side, not particularly modern. It is an album with decent variation and it opens with a metalcore kind of song. I would give them a plus though for not being preachy, as they are described as a Christian band in some places.

The vocals are aggressive and growly, not very varied and pretty dull. I would claim that this album doesn’t really make any impression in an already saturated music genre. And besides that it isn’t that great either, none of the tracks really stand out and I would think that only a very select few will find this album appealing and that just isn’t enough to reach any higher rating in this webzine.

In the end I find this to be an album that doesn’t quite do anything for me, it has some decent material but in the end I have to say that I remain very indifferent, if not slightly bored. An album for the fans, and only the fans – the rest of us don’t really need to bother that much with what these guys have to offer. It is like the peregrine’s wings have frozen in the winter cold and it isn’t able to take off towards the cloudy skies.

HHHHHHH