Stigma

When Midnight Strikes!

Written by: AB on 21/02/2008 09:42:38

Okay people, this is my first ever review for this site, so please bear with me.. Normally, I (apparently) listen to quite heavier and harder stuff than my esteemed fellow writers here at Rockfreaks.net do, and that was actually the niche I thought I should fill by contributing here. However, Stigma here isn\'t really something I would listen to normally, but being a cheap sucker trying to get some street credit from the more senior members I\'m diving in anyways. Besides, I never signed on knowing I would only be listening to \'my own type of music\'. Geronimo!

Stigma\'s debut \"When Midnight Strikes!\" starts out with a minute long opener containing wolf howls, sinister noise and evil laughter, and thus more-or-less makes me want to head butt the record to pieces. However, after the lame start, the next track--their single \"I Am Dracula\"--is a nice change, opening with energy and speed, and following up with screams and a little solo work.

However, after the first few minutes it\'s clear that these Italians play deathcore with all the typical bells and whistles. The growling tries to be brutal, but like most bands of the genre it sounds more like roaring or shrieking than actual growling. The solos are short and simple without being as catchy as their pretty much run of the milk riffs are. The drum work is fine without being anything special. The pace of the CD goes back and forth in the usual metalcore/deathcore style, from slower breakdowns to what the band itself would probably call all-out brutality, but what I would call \"a little fast\".

However, all is not entirely typical about Stigma. Their lyrical universe is about classic (movie) horror masters like werewolves and vampires, as song titles like \"Blood, Your Precious Blood!\" and \"Sons Of Midnight\" so subtly suggest. Luckily, from the look of the artwork it doesn\'t seem they take this theme all too serious as there is, among other things, a picture of the 5 band members as zombies/vampires amongst gravestones and impaled victims!

Even though Stigma far from adds something new to the genre, and most of their songs seem to blend together, a few of the tracks stand out. \"Walking the Fields of the Apocalypse\" is probably the catchiest song, and when it can be difficult to separate the songs from one another otherwise, this is a good thing. On top of this, it has the best solo of the album. The last song on the disc is actually a bonus track, a re-mixed version of \"Epitaph of Pain\" from their 2004 EP, also titled \"Epitaph of Pain\". This is the most brutal song on the record, which is always good in my book!

6

Download: Epitaph of Pain, Walking the Fields of the Apocalypse
For the fans of: The Black Dahlia Murder, Job For A Cowboy, Bring Me The Horizon
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date 25.03.2008
Pivotal Rockordings

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