Unzane – Test Of Time
Too Loud Records
Release Date: 17/12/21
Running Time: 29:56
Review by Simon Black
7/10
Hailing from Puerto Rico (so that’s another first country album review for me) this powerful four piece have been around for over twenty years. As so often happens when I get something from a new part of the world (for me at least), the discovery that there’s a whole back catalogue of four albums is refreshing, yet frustrating at the same time. Refreshing, because that gives me confidence that these are experienced players honing their craft and I’m going to enjoy mining the past, but frustrating that it’s not until their new signing to Italian label Too Loud Records in 2021 that the wider world has a chance to hear them.
It’s an odd and eclectic beast to say the least, as for an album that’s quite short in duration, it runs a whole gamut of styles in its near thirty minutes run time. That said, it’s done with a clear and distinctive groove-laden house sound that says to me that here is a band that knows what they are after and don’t mind nodding to their quite varied influences on the way, so I will stick with Heavy Metal as the catch all pigeonhole. But, variety is definitely the spice of life here…
‘Life Cruiser’ is definitely one of the stronger tracks, with a bouncy and catchy delivery and allowing vocalist David Carrión the chance to prove that he’s more than capable of hitting the higher, cleaner registers quite effortlessly – to the point where I am left wishing he had done it a little more often. Although he stays mid-range predominantly, and his phrasing is the classic one you get when a singer is focussing fifty per cent of his attention on his rhythm guitar parts (which is unusual as he’s not actually playing one!), this particular song works better because his melody lines are at an angle to the guitar ones, as opposed to rigidly following the guitar melody though. That said, the highly Slayer-esque ‘Extreme Ferocity’ works precisely because it does the complete opposite!
There’s clearly a place for both, but the point is he could hit the stratosphere vocally if he set aside the Stratocaster’s tempo more often… Like I said, it’s eclectic – yet it works, because this is a band with a confidence and richness of sound that means whatever approach they try, the effect and the underlying deep and catchy groove remain.
‘Test Of Time’ Official Video
TRACKLISTING:
01. Emotional Coaster
02. Braveheart Warriors
03. Because of You
04. Boogeyman
05. Extreme Ferocity
06. Life Expectancy
07. Feelings for You
08. Life Cruiser
09. Evolution
10. Test of Time
LINE-UP:
Ricky Leon – Guitars
Alfredo Vargas – Bass
Alex Hernández – Drums
David Carrión – Vocals
LINKS:
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