Black Tide - Shockwave
MuHead
pirate metal it's always good to find a band like Black Tide who deal
in straightforward metal. Coming in somewhere between old school bands
like 'Maiden and the upstarts of today, Trivium, Black tide have a
solid and distinctive sound.
Shockwave, taken from their new album Light From Above is a great
example of their heavy, old school style metal which avoids the often
ridiculous falsettos of power metal. Lyrically Black Tide ape the
sleaze rock of Avenged Sevenfold and Shockwave itself seems to
reference the hard drug scene (I'm a shockwave and I'll take your
f***ing life! Don't mess with me I'm a shockwave ready to kill!).
Sadly this is tried and tested territory from the days of early
Metallica, done far better on tracks like Master of Puppets.
What stands out about Black Tide is their age. The band gained
notoriety in the USA when they were upgraded to the main stage of
Ozfest having been declared too young to play on the side stages.
Coming in at an average age of 19 its odd to hear such an 80's
orientated sound from a band in what is becoming a progressively more
Emo fuelled music scene.
Black Tide are a curious lot. It's interesting to hear the return of
old school thrash metal to modern rock but at the same time the genre
has been done so many times before you'd be forgiven for wondering
"What's the point?". Is it a good thing Black Tide have gone back to
the roots of metal? They're a lot more real and entertaining than some
of the more recent metal acts, but for all it's machine gun guitars
and classic references Shockwave is merely ok. There is little
outstanding or impressive about it, but it should entertain a rock fan
for a few minutes or so.
Girrable
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