UMUR
Wasteland Discoteque is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish melodic death metal/ metalcore act Raunchy and the 2nd with vocalist Kasper Thomsen. The album was released in June 2008 by Lifeforce Records.
The music on the album is melodic death metal/ metalcore with raw vocals in the verses and clean sung choruses, layers of keyboards and vers/ chorus structured tracks. The tracks on Wasteland Discoteque are even more polished and accessible than the tracks on the predecessor Death Pop Romance (2006) which is also helped on the way by an even more polished and clean production by Jacob Hansen and Raunchy. I think the tracks are generally a bit more interesting than the tracks on Death Pop Romance and this time around there are even 3 tracks on the album that set themselves apart from the rest. Something that wasn´t the case on Death Pop Romance where I felt the songs sounded too much the same. The intro track This Blackout Is Your Apocalypse is a great way to start the album. Melodic and building atmosphere. The two other tracks that stand out on the album are the Rockwell cover Somebody's Watching Me, which fits great on the album and the closing track The Comfort of Leaving which has a slight progressive touch to it that I find refreshing considering the generally very formulaic nature of most the other tracks on the album. While the rest of the tracks might be a bit too formulaic for my taste, I would never deny that they are extremely well written with chorus hooklines and memorable melodies in spades. Acts like latter day Soilwork and In Flames are still the most obvious references but Raunchy takes the accessibility element a bit further. This is probably as close to pop music disguised as harder edged metal as you get.
Wasteland Discoteque is a really well written album and with excellent musicians as Raunchy playing the tracks even my complaints about formulaic structures and other minor issues are blow to bits. A 3 - 3.5 star rating is warranted.