Threat Signal - Under Reprisal

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RIYL

Killswitch Engage
Pantera
Dillinger Escape Plan
Mastodon
Machine Head

Label

Nuclear Blast

Tracklist

1. Rational Eyes
2. As I Destruct
3. One Last Breath
4. Seeing Red
5. New Beginning
6. Counterbalance
7. Inane
8. Now
9. Faceless
10. Haunting
11. When All Is Said and Done
12. Rational Eyes [Multimedia Track]

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It’s all been done. Some just do it better. Metal is no exception.

Canadian act Threat Signal is releasing one of this year’s best metal debuts, Under Reprisal. Combining raw, aggressive riffs with a devastating rhythm section and spot-on, jaw-dropping vocals, this band achieves on record what current, quasi-joke-metal bands like Disturbed, Godsmack, and the cheeky Mudvayne only achieve in their wet dreams.

Threat Signal is hardly as commercial as the aforementioned and abandons the catchy hook for the mean metal scream and shredding guitar solo. (Solos? Today? Go figure.) Guitarists Rich Howard and Kyle McKnight are a one-two combo that hasn’t been seen since the Dave Mustaine/Marty Friedmen days. They may shred well, but they don’t solely take the spotlight in this incredible new metal act. That limelight belongs to vocalist Jon Howard.

Howard has the perfect combination of scream and melody. A comparison to Phil Anselmo might even be in order with Howard exuding a range in vocal ability that hasn’t been reached since the early 90s. Songs like “Rational Eyes,” “A New Beginning” (which incidentally features one of the best closing riffs I’ve ever heard) and “Faceless” are the highlights of this album. However, Howard does retain an eerie resemblance to Linkin Park’s Chester Benningon, especially in the chorus of “A New Beginning.” (The similarity is actually uncanny.) Also, and to be fair, a lot of the songs lack dissociation from one another.

But those slight annoyances don’t take away from the originality of this album, nor do they take away from the incredible amount of talent existing in this band – talent which, my guess, has yet to be fully breached.

--Brent White

Author

brent white
Last updated: 09/29/2009 08:54PM

Comments

murder
08/22/2006
11:10AM
Location
Belgrade, Serbia
using Disturbed n Godsmack in that way is one thing but putting Mudvayne in the same basket? well, mister, please...

n yeah, Threat Signal is gay...
if this kind of music is on NuclearBlast there's big chance it's just another of those 11000 "look alike, play alike, sound alike somethin-core, not, sorry, somethin-metal" bands with lil bit mo money for production stuff...
M.J.Austin
08/22/2006
12:20PM
Location
Dallas, Texas
Sounds like it might be work checking out.
danal
08/22/2006
01:22PM
Age: 25
Location
Toronto, Ontario
Good review.

I find it funny that they're from roughly the same area as I am, and on a label like Nuclear Blast, and yet hardly no one in the Hamilton and surrounding area (Toronto, Burlington, etc) has heard of them hahaha

"Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative."

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life\as/proof
08/22/2006
01:22PM
Age: 29
Location
Washington
i checked it out, and it ain't bad at all.

here's to cheap sex and codeine in a hospital bed...