The Finnish band Grendel has released their latest album A Change Through Destruction. These guys describe themselves as a melodic death metal band, but I absolutely don’t agree with that. Want to know why? Continue reading!

The album starts off with 'One Desire', a speedy melodic death song which immediately catches the attention. Up next is the more down tempo 'A Change Through Destruction' which on its own is a pretty good track, but because of the slower drums, the introduction of the clean vocals, the prominence of the keyboards and a lot of repetition of the chorus, feels like a cold shower after 'One Desire'.

Grendel maintains down tempo during 'Dialog with Pain' and by the time the first tunes of 'The Deaf Cult' come out of my speakers, I’m starting to believe this is more of a doom band than a death metal band as they seem to have misled me during the first track. 'The Deaf Cult' by the way is definitely the girl song of the album, look at for instance the following line of the lyrics: “No one hears you. There's no one to talk to. No place to go now. There's no one to show you how.” Cute, don’t you think? But it’s not just the lyrics that makes this song so sweet it’s almost annoying; the slow, melodic guitar solo has a pretty big impact on this view as well.

To my surprise 'Another Link in the Chain' and 'Trapped Inside' are more up tempo as well, which to me feels out of place. I think it would be good for Grendel to decide which direction they are heading and on a personal account, I would advise them to concentrate on the slower songs, since this obviously is their stronger side. Nice melodic riffs and amazing clean vocals make A Change Through Destruction intense, despite the three tracks which shouldn’t have been on this album.