Wanna Live Underground? (Labyrint - Arakain)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Labyrint - Arakain
Date:	25/01/08 (23 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Standard heavy power metal fare with good vocals.

Disadvantages: Becomes very tedious very soon.

Arakain is a surprisingly long-running metal band from the Czech Republic, surprising mainly for how little impact their vast catalogue of works has seemed to have on the international metal scene. If their fourteenth album 'Labyrint' is anything to go by, the reason is probably one of originality; Arakain's music is competent and enjoyable heavy metal, but nothing that hasn't been heard before, and once you've heard one song here you've pretty much heard them all.

I can't speak for their older albums when they were allegedly a thrash band (at least according to Wikipedia's disappointingly minimal page on the topic), but here the sound is rooted entirely in modern power metal of the heavy and less experimental variety, similar to later Helloween or Brainstorm. Honza Touzimský's vocals are powerful and slightly gritty but capable of reaching the high notes, similar to Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, and he's the most notable aspect of a band that otherwise relies entirely on the standard fare of medium speed guitar riffs and incessant double bass drumming. His accent also adds a nice exotic flavour that's otherwise entirely lacking.

It isn't all disappointing, and it's an easily enjoyed album as long as you're not looking for anything that particularly stands out, but the repetitive structures and general similarity of all the songs starts to become tedious after a short time. Only 'Tak uz to vzdej!' really stands apart through the disappointment of sounding almost like a "nu"-metal song, but the general groove throughout the album often branches out into faster rhythms with more energetic vocal performances. There are some intriguing albums listed in the band's past discography, particularly one that bizarrely seems to be based around the film 'Forrest Gump,' so this is a band I really should Czech out more. I've been waiting through the whole review to do that joke.

1. Vir
2. Démon
3. Prospektor
4. Tak uz to vzdej!
5. Nastal cas
6. Volný pád
7. Skrývám svuj stín
8. Bláznuv labyrinth
9. Napoleon
10. Hledání
11. Dábelská hra
12. Vinen
13. Ztracenej svet

Summary: Arakain's fourteenth album (2006).