UMUR
"Opening The Silos" is the debut full-length studio album by Finnish death metal act Apocalypse Warhead. The album is a self-released affair, which currently can be purchased through the band´s Bandcamp page. Apocalypse Warhead is a one-man act featuring Tuukka Laitinen who is the former guitarist of the Finnish hardcore/metal act Rytmihäiriö. Tuukka Laitinen plays guitar, bass, sings (growls) and has programmed the drums for the album.
...before you dismiss "Opening The Silos" because I mentioned that the drums are programmed I promise you these drums are very well programmed. In fact I didn´t know they were programmed from listening to the album. I only found out by reading about the artist. It´s very obvious from listeneing to the album that Tuukka Laitinen is quite the talented guy. The musicianship is generally very impressive. Besides doing a great job programming the powerful and varied drums, his skills on guitar and bass are considerable too (check out the well played guitar solos). The riffs are generally played at a relentlessly fast pace with a great emphasis on rythm (kinda thrashy at times but ultimately too brutal to be called thrash). It´s one of those albums where it´s almost impossible to catch a breath while it´s playing. It´s that energetic. I absolutely adore the instrumental part of the album. Unfortunately the unintelligible and monotone growling vocals are a bit of a drag. With a bit more aggressive vocals and maybe a couple of lyrical hooks "Opening The Silos" could have gone from great to excellent. I´m sure it´s an aquired taste though and fans of the really brutal growling death metal style will probably enjoy the vocals greatly.
"Opening The Silos" is a very successful debut album to my ears and while I have a hard time fully appreciating the growling vocals it´s not like they completely destroy the picture of an otherwise great album. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.