Deathstar Rising 2011

"Before the Dawn are often categorized as a gothic melodeath band, but I honestly do not think that "Deathstar" rising has a lot to do with melodic death metal. Apart from growled vocals and the tracks "Butterfly Effect" and "Wraith", I do not hear a lot of melodeath (certainly no death). And I do not really hear anything in the music that I can connect with gothic metal (with the one exception of "The Wake"). To me, it sounds more like modern melodic metal with growled vocals and an overall eclectic approach.

But, hey, genre-wankery is pointless anyway. The important thing is that the music is good.

This is my first experience with Before the Dawn, and I must say that they've made a positive first impression. I like how the music is inherently melodic and at the same time extremely tight. It is very obvious that the musicianship is at a very professional level here, and the guys in the band have a knack for composing catchy and memorable melodies - both in terms of guitars and vocal lines.

To me, the strongest asset of the band is bassist "Lars Elkind's, clean vocals (yup, they do the typical harsh/clean vocals thing... I guess that this is a melodeath element, too). Tuomas Saukkonen provides the growled vocals; his growling is more standard. I mean it is not bad, he is pretty good at it, but it is nothing unique or special. But Elkind's voice is quite something. It is very expressive and has a sort of beautiful quality to it, and his singing adds an additional emotional dimension to the already melodic chorus melodies.

Recommended to fans of melodeath, melodic metalcore and som fans of classic metal might also like it.

(review originally posted on metalmusicarchives.com and in Danish on heavymetal.dk)"