Storm of Particles
Gaea Hypothesis

Gaea Hypothesis is the debut album of Italian band Storm of Particles; they released a self-titled EP in 2016. That was an EP that promised quite a bit, like a pretty exciting teaser for an upcoming album and that album is what I have been listening to for a while now. It has a pretty exciting artwork, like the EP, it has some songs from the EP added to that there are some more tracks. Nine tracks in total and 37 minutes playing time, it all looks very promising – but it doesn’t quite live up to the promise.

Atmospheric melodic death metal is the genre, very strong melodies and very uninteresting vocals. The sound is good albeit a little bit flat, it could have been a bit more dynamic and powerful I think but it is nevertheless a good production. The nine tracks doesn’t feel particularly varied and that is another thing that feels a bit flat, there is no real variation and the 37 minutes feel more like 55 or something like that. It is an album that despite being rather short feels rather long.

Energy is certainly something they could have used a bit more of, that and more depth – and perhaps a better vocalist. Still, it is an okay album; the melodies are impressive through most of the album. The problem is the songs, they lack passion, they lack depth, they lack energy, and they lack hit potential - that adds up to a rather bland album. Melodic death metal is a very populated genre and there are hundreds of albums dropped each year in it so you really need to do something extra to be noticed, and unfortunately Storm of Particles doesn’t do that and I believe their debut album will be fast forgotten.

Audacious is not a word I think of when it comes to this album, more pusillanimous an album from a band that doesn’t dare to really step outside the box and risk failure. By not risking to fail they fail to make something that will stand out in an already extremely overcrowded genre. And I can just conclude that I was hoping for a lot more from these guys, the debut EP promised much more than was delivered with this album.

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