(Melodic Heavy Metal) The Morning After - You Can't Hurt Steel (Japanese Ed.) - 2009, MP3, 320 kbps

It’s not the first time that an attached promo sheet is screaming at me that this band will rock my socks off. This band is definitely the next big thing when it comes to metal. Especially when the vocalist states that they don’t write about love because that has been done to the death and the lyrics are about sci-fi and apocalypse fiction. Yeah, like that has never been done before. So I must say that I was a bit sceptic about this one beforehand.

Since the album starts with a really cheesy intro I feared the worst for the rest of the album. After one minute the horror is over and ‘Lost In Time’ kicks in. The riffs are immediately flying around and I must admit they are quite catchy. When someone screams “kick it” and the vocals enter the song there’s even a little smile on my face. I might like this after all. The combination of clean powerful vocals and brutal screams turns out pretty great. Add to this some pretty tight drumming and melodic crushing guitar work.

During the brutal start of ‘Hell And High Water’ I’m convinced. I’m not saying they are the next big thing but they do kick ass very hard. It’s like Dragonforce only without the everlasting solos and that is certainly a compliment. It’s probably been done a thousand times before but it’s the combination of all those things mentioned before that makes this album stand out from the rest.

I have to admit I was wrong in the beginning. With influences of probably every hair metal band in the past combined with a nowadays production, some good old heavy metal and indeed sci-fi lyrics they convinced me. A killer album that made me really curious about their stage presentation.

Choir sections? Check. Inward screams? Check. Medieval guitar? Check. Stadium worthy sing-alongs? Check! The Morning After has no intention of being anything other than over the top! Hmm maybe this promo sheet is right after all.

Review written by Niamen for www.metalrage.com

Sam Ryder - Vocals, Guitars
Jay Bude - Bass
Phil Maher - Guitars
Reece Bude - Drums