Review: Rivera Bomma - I Am God | |||||||
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I Am God | |||||||
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Label: Mausoleum Records Year released: 2006 Duration: 65:39 Tracks: 10 Genre: Melodic Heavy Metal Rating: Review online: July 20, 2006 Reviewed by: Michel Renaud |
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Review | |||||||
The main problem with Rivera Bomma's album is that a lot of people will pass on it because of its Christian themes - and there's absolutely no doubt about the thematic as this is the most "preachy" of all the Christian metal albums I've heard. Now let's leave the thematic aside and concentrate on the actual music. This is one of Mausoleum Records' recent signings and like most of those, with the notable exception of nu-Silencer, you get some kick ass music to boot. Rivera Bomma is essentially melodic heavy metal with neoclassical elements, and sometimes edging into power metal territory but not overly so. Basically this is rooted in 80s-style heavy metal, with even a bit of Maiden overtones at times. What somewhat "modernizes" the sound is the occasional very noticeable use of keyboards which I think in most cases here would have been better off being left out altogether - things sound much better when the keyboards are out of the picture. I was expecting something on the flowery/fruity side when I first put the album in, but save for a couple of songs that are kind of soft rockers/ballads with a metallic edge (such as "Oh Girl"), the songs are usually quite hard-sounding and mid to fast-paced, and have nothing to envy other melodic heavy metal bands out there. The ninth song is an instrumental that doesn't fit that well here, but it's not too bad, but not exactly metallic either. What I found most interesting here are the vocals. That guy has a powerful set of lungs and controls his voice very well, and also doesn't attempt to exceed his capabilities, so there's nothing here that'll make you cringe as far as vocals go. Very agreeable. He does a remarkable job on all tracks, but I found the title track to be particularly well done (also on the musical level.) By far the most accomplished song on the whole album, although that doesn't take anything away from the other ones. In fact over several listens, I found myself looking forward more to some of the vocal melodies than to the guitar parts. His voice alone adds a lot of power to the music. There isn't much that surprise me anymore, but Rivera Bomma sure caught me off guard. This one gets better with every listen. Recommended for those who can get past the thematic. |
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