Despite – EPic CD (Crehate Music)
As you would expect here, coming from Gothenburg, Sweden, this quintet dish out some technically precise and fine tuned metal. It’s heavy, full of groove, and most importantly delivered to a high standard. Firmly rooted in the waters of Pantera, Lamb Of God, Machine Head and Slipknot etc, as good as it is, it sadly offers nothing new or extra or even exciting to the cocktail. Sure it’s a chug-fest of riffs, and some demonically heavy vocal work, followed by possessed screams, but it just comes across as a little run-of-the –mill and slightly predictable. Having said that, it will please a lot of modern metal fans, as Despite’s sound does distribute a crushing blow of power, which is something many look for. The five tracks here sound strong, with a good production and some nice packaging, but without major push they will unfortunately remain behind the sea of above named bands. Mark Freebase