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The year 2011 has been a really great year for metal music. The number of albums deserving of the highest of accolades released in the year has been great indeed, and there has also been a generally low number of albums that are real stinkers or at the very least disappointments. There have been a few of course, but not many that really were middle of the road or worse, and the ratio between the good and the bad has been heavily tipped in the favour of the good in 2011, so much in fact that I’m thinking there must be something in the water. Naturally one cannot review every metal album released in the year, but of all the 2011 reviews I’ve written the above has been the case, although I have always expected that some weaker releases would crawl out of the woodwork at some point. The one thing I didn’t expect though would be that Motion, the third release from Brazilian metal act Almah (another band of Angra’s Edu Falaschi), would number among these lesser releases of 2011.
The main problem is here is this: Almah has decided to go and partially reinvent their sound for Motion into something of a progressive groove metal style. Previously Almah had been a very good progressive power metal band, with the 2008 album Fragile Equality being a very exceptional release of this style of metal music. I’ve always been open to bands evolving but I repeat: Almah was a very good progressive power metal band. Almah is not a very good progressive groove metal band. It doesn’t help matters that they haven’t entirely left their power metal at the door, resulting in something that sounds a bit of a mess to be brutally honest. The style of the riffs does not complement the lead guitar work for example. This said you’d think that nothing was amiss by the way the album kicks off with Hypnotized which has a melodic intro that sounds set to build up into some quality melodic power metal, but then they throw a curveball with the new style and it all goes down the drain. I’d expect to find some of these riffs in a Pantera or Lamb of God album, not an Almah album.
Edu Falaschi is a good singer. His work prior to Motion is testimony to this. With Motion however he’s really given his credibility some serious damage. Instead of sticking to his strong clean vocals he’s decided to also introduce some more aggressive (I’m not really sure if that’s the best way to describe them, just saying that they’re less melodic may be more accurate) vocals. This isn’t really needed when you have a singer of this calibre in the band, although in his defence it’s at least in keeping with the groove metal inclined riffs. An example of where the vocals are at their most extreme is Zombies Dictator. Edu switches between the styles a lot on this album, which although it does show his versatility it also further showcases how Almah didn’t leave power metal entirely at the door, but dropped it enough so that Motion has a very different flavour to it compared to Fragile Equality and the group’s debut (which was actually released as an Edu Falaschi solo album).
Another major problem with Motion is that it isn’t so much terrible as it is disjointed. There are actually some very good tracks on the album. The trouble is that this is a metal album, so it’s naturally an issue when the ballads sound superior to most of the heavy tracks. The ballads seem much better composed compared to the metal tracks and while this is possibly because they’d sound more fitting to Almah’s old style and thus retain some of the qualities that Almah used to have. There is also a general air of much inferior writing on Motion’s metal tracks to Almah’s first couple of works that new direction aside, makes the album a major disappointment. I can’t even imagine these songs sounding much better in Almah’s old style. The best track here is without a doubt Bullets on the Altar, a track which is more fitting to the Fragile Equality sound of Almah, but much of the album is just downright weak, especially the lead single Trace of Trait. Motion is not completely unlistenable by a long shot, if anything it’s an easy listen, but I really fail to see the bulk of their fanbase of which I consider myself a part of accepting the album with open arms. It’s as if Almah tried to make for themselves a more modern metal sound, but weren’t prepared to go with in fully in order to make a consistent album.
Almah really had something going for them with Fragile Equality and after such an excellent album as it I had really high expectations for its follow up; expectations that Motion has utterly failed to stand up to and if this is any indication of what will follow then I hate to say it but I think this band is in deep trouble. The only thing Motion really succeeds at is to prove that changing your musical direction can indeed be a very bad thing to do, especially if the change isn’t exactly complete as with Motion. Almah may know how to write a ballad, but it’s just not enough for a metal album. I close this review now, feeling nothing but deep sadness at what has happened to the great band that made Fragile Equality. Motion just about scrapes a middle of the road rating from me, since deep down there are some good ideas here, the main problem is that the style changes aren’t in the band’s favour and I feel I should take that into account. The album did also grow on me after a couple of listens, but I ultimately have to remain negative about this one since the band did do some stuff that just didn’t work, and overall it leaves me neither feeling overwhelmingly positive or negative. I suspect this could end up being something of a love/hate release for fans of the band. At least that’s how I’ve come to regard it.
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scored at 4.5/10, "Middle of the Road")