BOOK OF REFLECTIONS — Relentless Fighter (review)

BOOK OF REFLECTIONS — Relentless Fighter album cover Album · 2012 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Time Signature
Dance with the devil...

Genre: progressive metal

Fans of Lars Eric Mattsson must really be having the year of a lifetime. Not only are they treated to a rerelease of "Obsession"; there is also a new album from Mattson-led prog power metal project Book of Reflections. "Relentless Fighter" features Mattsson on guitars and Carsten Schulz from Evidence One and Marjju Kuikka of Status Minor on vocals and as co-writers.

Musically, "Relentless Fighter" is slightly heavier than Mattsson's other projects but the neoclassical guitar acrobatics for which Mattsson is famous are retained. Overall, the tracks on this album are quite progressive, featuring odd time signatures and spacey keyboards, which are put to quite good use in creating progressive quirks that go well together with Mattsson's neoclassicisms and the epic power metal-oriented choruses. I do think that the keys are perhaps a bit too dominant in some parts of 'Rise Up!', but that is probably just me.

The songs are very well put together, and I think that tracks like 'Until the Day', 'Dance With the Devil' and 'Crashing Through' are excellent, and I especially like how the synths combined with the neoclassicist approach remind me a bit of Rainbow. Other noteworthy tracks the heavy and groovy 'Somewhere Else to Be' and 'Gates to Oblivion', the latter being an instrumental with an eastern flavor to it.

While I really like the vocals and the guitar work, I think that the production is a bit too fuzzy, and the drums sounds very mechanical. This detracts a bit from the overall listening experience, but - fortunately - the music itself is still strong enough to hold its own (a more defined production and a more organic drumming style would have warranted a 4 or even 4.5 score, though).

"Relentless Fighter" is a fine guitar-driven progressive metal album with power metal elements and plenty of neoclassicisms to satisfy any fan of guitar shredding.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Černé Srdce Atmospheric Sludge Metal
ARCHETYP
Buy this album from MMA partners
Anomalia Metalcore
AGREMORTA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Ingräte Metalcore
INGRÄTE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Fossil Gardens Black Metal
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
Buy this album from MMA partners
Из Чего Я Состою Crust Punk
MARIE GUELLA
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Agremorta - Adrocitas (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 9 hours ago
Agremorta - Ploratus Umbra (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 9 hours ago
Agremorta - Vertex Membrana (Official Lyric Video)
AGREMORTA
Bosh66· 9 hours ago
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR - The Temple Of Curved Space (Official Track Stream)
HAIL SPIRIT NOIR
adg211288· 11 hours ago
In Sulfur - The Gate (OFFICIAL VIDEO) 2022
IN SULFUR
Bosh66· 1 day ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed