MyGrain Finland

"MyGrain are one of many Finnish melodic so-called death metal bands. While there are some death metal elements on this album, such as semi-growls and a couple of blastbeats, it sounds more like thrash metal and speed metal in overdrive. That does not mean that this is a bad album (it just means that I think that melodeath has become so far removed from death metal that it doesn't make any sense to call it "death" metal anymore. Anyway, this eponymous album has everything that fans of melodeath like, I think. It has fast thrashy riffage and aggressive vocals paired with the occasional clean sounding vocal melody, and then, of course, there is plenty of melody all over the place - often emphasized through the use of keyboards. And the musicianship is top notch - the guys are really talented and pull off some shreddy stunts that sometimes add a sense of neoclassical power metal. The best thing, however, is that, even though the production is very clean, MyGrain do not come across as polished and poppy as many other melodeath bands do. There is still an underlying aggression to the songs on this album. (review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"