Once in a while, the Metalrage crew has a meeting where the progress of our work will be discussed. We actually had a meeting lately where some incoming cd’s were handed out. I got…….Back home I sat down and took some time to listen to this five-track record.

The band started in 2003, two years ago, after the break of other bands. Because the frontman and guitar player already were working on some songs, Down Till Dawn was formed.
The music starts pretty nice. Because this record only contains five tracks, the opening of immediately smashing on the instruments sounds cool. Some good stoner riffs, smashing drums and a fine bass make the music simply bang your head. All sounding pretty nice and promising until the vocals start to come into the music. Pity. I’d like to describe them as ‘trying really hard’ but never accomplishing true goals. It sounds something like a shouting/grunting voice with very simple loops. They’re not challenging at all and certainly not something to listen to for a lot of times. I also mentioned a few notes that don’t fit at all with the music. Half a note higher or lower and making my eyes start to squeeze. This could be done on purpose and could have worked out nice if the sound of the vocals would be nice to listen to. But together with the capability of the front man, I can only conclude that music and voice don’t fit together, at all. And that makes this cd a disappointment for me.
The point is: I don’t doubt about the fact that the music is good and well worked out. Seriously, the structures of the songs are nice and well thought-off. Maybe I reckon some simple structures in the songs, but that could be really powerful and interesting sometimes. The heavy riffs are followed by some nice guitar loops, the drums are a nice and strong guidance for the other instruments and bass guitar gives the band a ‘fully’ sound. But the vocals, they are a really bad link.

Line up:

Aldo Hook - vocals
Jaco Dekker - guitar
Isaac Delahaye - guitar
Steven Engel - bass
Arien van Weesenbeek - drums

Tracklist:

1. And then there were none
2. World weaver
3. (in)habit
4. The pain
5. Horned is the hunter