Maelstrom
Of Gods and Men

I guess the moral of the story about Maelstrom, the American band with a long story behind them, is that you should never give up. Their story begun more than three decades ago in 1988 and they are said to have achieved a cult status through the underground scene, despite this cult status they never released an album before disbanding in 1994. Now, in the strangest year for my generation they have reimagined their acclaimed demos and reconstructed the songs to make this debut album called Of Gods and Men.

Their style is described as epic cinematic metal, and that is probably not a bad description. It is an album that is kind of epic and adventurous in style, kind of theatrical or cinematic. The traces of old is there in terms of the metal style that is very often dated in a sense, but the sound is quite modern and powerful with raw and almost thrashy vocals. The vocals and sound are good, but the album is a bit long and would have needed more variation and depth to keep the listener interested for the full playing time.

Despite the long playing time it is a good album, I like it in many regards but the most memorable things aren’t really there. I think the band have things to offer, quality musicians and decent songwriters are they and they offer a fine debut album – perhaps it might be promising much for the future but considering the long history it might also be that this is the best they have to offer and that would be a bit sad considering that they are not quite there throughout the album – it needs to be more memorable to make a bigger impact.

It may be worth looking closer at if you enjoy the rougher side of the epic metal, if you are one of those you will probably find this album agreeable or even great. I think that it is a fine album that would have been pretty excellent if it would have arrived a little over thirty years ago.

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