Engel

Threnody (Season of Mist)
By Mike Delano

Sweden’s Engel is barreling down the road at a great clip for the first four tracks of Threnody, bashing through some modern metal with incredible energy and polish. Sure, everyone might not be up for the Spineshank-y nü metal trickery that’s inserted here and there, but after back to back to back to back bashers, you should be feeling good. Then the lame-o, limp noodle ballad “To The End” plops down across the middle of the album like a spike strip and lets all the air out of your hard-on with its cheesy chorus, strings, and female vocals. From there, the album goes into a tailspin from which it never recovers: The H.I.M./In Flames hybrid of “Every Sin (Leaves a Mark)” was never meant to be, and “Down” has the most laughably egregious use of good cop/bad cop vocals in recent memory.
(www.season-of-mist.com)