• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

We're not as flooded with Melodic Death Metal as we used to, but there are still some survivors out there. Lunarsea hail from Italy and play some rather upbeat form of the genre, in great part due to the frequent use of clean vocals with very melodic and catchy/memorable vocal lines, and to a lesser extent some slightly happy keyboards that pop up here and there. The main vocal style is the light growl commonly found in the genre, which is executed very well here – the vocalist isn't dull and really adapts his growls to the beat and mood of the music, both synced almost to perfection.

The music is pretty good overall – beyond what you expect from the genre, Lunarsea throw in a good dose of atmosphere here and there; it's not omnipresent, but rather used just in the right spots. Same goes for some slightly epic-sounding parts that sometimes save the album from sinking too much into "your average melodeath" album, essentially preying on the unsuspecting listener. The overall vibe is quite positive, sometimes flirting with happy Power Metal territory when the keyboards take over a little too much, couple with very melodic clean vocals. Some may like the resulting effect, but personally I found this was a little over the top – but we're really talking personal preferences at this point. Route Code Selector is about half average melodeath, half original, which is more than I can say for most albums in the genre in the past few years.