Рецензия IndustrializedMetal.tk (Нидерланды) на EP GOLDEN AGE "Break Down" (in English)

Artist: GOLDEN AGE
Album: Break Down

Some virusses seem quite unstoppable when it comes to infecting, and one of them is the industrial metal virus. Bands like Xe-None, Digimortal and Vergeltung already proved that this virus managed to reach the dark woods of Russia, and exactly over there we found ourselves a new and rather promising band. Golden Age exists of three people who describe their band as a “Russian synthetic metal band”. Luckly they managed to throw some industrial influences in it too! The “Break Down” EP came out in 2006, and exists out of four songs, one intro and a remix. After the intro, the EP kicks off with the title track. The intro is very industrial, and the song afterwards is very synth based. There is a protounding bass riff all over the song, that drills inside your brain from the first until the last hit. The intermezzo is very powerful, and the industrialized guitarwork makes sure the power can be found elsewhere in the song as well. ‘Golden Age’ features trance and techno sampling mixed with dark metal objects and a catchy chorus. This song can best be described as an emotional and industrialized mix between gothic and heavy metal. With this song, the band shows a different face of itself, which is definitely a good point. ‘A Phantom’ is a track written in their native language. The song turned out to be quite an atmospheric one, mixed with industrialized death metal guitarwork and EBM likely synthwork. And although I can’t understand a fuck of the lyrics, I must say that the vocal lines in the chorus get stuck in your head quite easy. ‘Down Below’ is the next track. This one is again more industrial based, and they prove again that nobody has to teach them how to mix trance with metal. There’s even more, because this EP ends with a remix version of ‘Down Below’ which is a cool bonus on this EP. I would like to have some words about the vocals too. “Ghost”, the vocalist, has a remarkably good pronnounciation of the English phrases (heard them a lot worser from most of the Russian people) plus he really knows how to use his voice the best way. Emotional and sentimental parts are no problem at all, but on the other side he managed to sail on the more brutal guitarriffs too. About this band’s style I can be short: I cannot make up any band that sound like this band, and that’s quite exceptional (specially for a young band like this). Bands like Pain, Neon Synthesis and various more old school stuff (Alice Cooper, Sonata Arctica) come in mind, but nobody has this special sound. Golden Age brought gold to me with this EP, lets see if they can promote it to platinum with their full lenght that will be out next year!

Vote: 95 / 100