So what is a metal maven to expect on Heroes, the typical Sabaton or the new and amazing version? Take a wild guess, oh jaded ones. The same occurred to a greater or lesser extent on their older albums as well. Releases like Coat of Arms had a few awesome tunes and a bunch of others that were either forgettable or bad. This all came as a big surprise to me, because I always found the band to be average and despite a unique style and sound, they seemed incapable of producing consistent albums. The combination of an interesting historical concept and inspired song writing really made that platter explode and we showered it with praise, adoration and fanboy kisses (of iron). We here at AMG (mainly AMG and myself) pretty much lost our collective shit over the last Sabaton album, Carolus Rex. Gentle Murders (Studio Live Rehearsal)ġ3. Another Kind Of Madness (Studio Live Rehearsal)Ġ4. Lost In The Void (Studio Live Rehearsal)ġ4. Long Hard Road (Studio Live Rehearsal)ġ2. Still though, with such a commanding and distinctive vocalist as Sandra Nasic is it's hard for them to go wrong.04. Given their history and ability, it's just a shame to hear Herrs Rumenapp, Ude and Poschwatta exercising so much restraint and playing it so safe. It's a solid and consistent album that takes few risks and generally does pretty much what you'd expect it to, for better or for worse. If you've heard Close To The Sun, you already know whether you'll like this album or not.
It's like nothing they've ever done before, and it works brilliantly. The aformentioned The Long Way Home is another highlight, a laid back, sunset coloured song that stays content bathing in synth pad atmospherics. Opener Like Somebody fares better, throwing in a surprise time signature change that builds into the most memorable moment on the album. Sadly it's by far the most questionable song lyrically, the opening line "I wanna jiggle around like Humpty-Dumpty" sticking out like a sore thumb. Only Jiggle provides much of a call back to some of their pre-breakup weirdness, with an unexpected and admittedly effective rap section complete with arabic scale strings. You've got the mid-tempo rock balladeering of Numen and lead single Close To The Sun, the upbeat, pop tinged Hey Last Beautiful and Water Wars, the spaced out closer The Long Way Home, and so on and so forth. Everything is done well, but not remarkably so. It's the sort of album where very few songs stand out as being noticeably better or worse than the others. The production is noticeably more raw than Bel Air, with the layers of backing vocals and glossy synth pads having been stripped back, but it just serves to showcase their blunted edges. Unfortunately though, that's not enough to mask the sound of a band playing it safe.
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Guano Apes may have "gone pop" to an extent upon resuming, but they haven't forgotten how to be themselves. And whilst the quirkiness may have been toned down, there's still hints of it on show. The heavy funk basslines and nu-metal riffs of old remain a thing of the past, in favour of alt-rock powerchord driven songs. Sandra Nasic is still a powerhouse frontwoman with a slight case of second-language-itis. It's about as predictable a follow up to Bel Air as one could expect.
Those with that mindset may want to find a new band to follow, as somewhere during their hiatus, the Apes evolved.Īnd so goes Offline. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that Guano Apes followed this trend upon their reform and subsequent album, yet look up any song from Bel Air on Youtube and there's almost always a comment or two about how much they suck now from people who'd rather they rewrote Open Your Eyes ten times for their next LP. The development and morphing of an artist's sound over the course of their career is an inevitability, and the "heavy band becoming softer" transformation is so common it's practically cliché.
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