Hearse
Armageddon Mon Amour
7.9
I didn't like this when I first heard it, I didn't. I thought it was the same swedamelodeathacaramelagoodness pile of shit. I thought it was Nonexist part II. Not that Nonexist was that bad, but really, I didn't give a shit about that album after having it for a month. But yeah, I heard this and didn't like it; found it really unremarkable. So you know what I did? I drove around with it playing for a while.
Hearse is Johan Liiva's latest band with an old bandmate of his, Max Thornell, from Furbowl and Devourment. Johan Liiva, however, is best known as being the former vocalist in Arch Enemy and later, Nonexist. Armageddon, Mon Amour is Hearse's second album, the first being Dominion Reptilian. I just had to get that whole background out of the way for those of you who live in aquatic caves or some shit.
I, for one, was pretty fucking pissed off when Arch Enemy got a new lead singer. Yeah, great, she's hot and everything, but Johan Liiva has always had this really great fucked up growl/yell to him. It always makes me think of the guy from Gorefest as far as his...just...almost horrible but has such a charismatic delivery in everything he's screaming out. It's a fine line between bad and amazing. Thankfully nothing's changed in that throat of his throughout all these years; still the same great sound - it's good to hear him again.
As for the actual album? It's great, really. Like I said, when I first heard it I was really dreading having to listen to it in its entirety, but there's a lot of memorable and catchy shit all over this disc. I was reading something on their biography page about how their lead guitarist (Matthias Ljung) isn't really into metal. Viewing his bio page reveals that he's a total fucking rock junkie, and it really shows through in his playing. Imagine Spiritual Beggars combined with Arch Enemy combined with uhhh...well I guess just imagine those two combined. There's just a lot of ass-rocking and wanktastic guitar playing on here. But it's still all heavy, dark, and melodic, never frilly and pretentious. You won't catch these jerkasses wearing tuxedo shirts and writing Bach-tribute power-ballads.
Judging by the bit I've heard of their first album, Dominion Reptilian, it really sounds like Hearse is doing the same thing now that they did before, only with better production and with tighter playing. Everything's a little more streamlined and punchy; it just seems like it's way more focused and professional. It all fits very well together.
Armageddon, Mon Amour really sounds like it was written by different members, each with the same uniform vision. There are segments that sound more thrashy and hard-hitting right before introducing sections which are clearly just straight rock inspired. Even through all the changes on the album, it's a unique sound and pretty distinct to Hearse. It's all great and just so goddamn triumphant. This isn't an album you'll want to wash windows to, as you'll most likely shatter the ones you're cleaning and end up in the hospital all bloodied up due to the amount of fist-pumping action it provides.
Honestly, I have no idea how I didn't like this album right away. I think I just cycled through and heard some snippets and mislabeled it as being the same old schlock. And maybe it IS the same old schlock to a lot of people out there, but if it is, it's some well-executed old schlock that you should go get into.
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9/18/2007