UMUR
"Catalepsy" is the debut full-length studio album by Spanish, Mallorca based thrash metal act Trallery. The album was released through Xtreem Music in June 2013. Trallery were formed in 2010 and consist of Sebas Barcelo (Drums), Biel Gayà (Guitars) and Humberto Pol (Vocals, Bass).
The music on "Catalepsy" is thrash metal with quite a few traditional heavy metal elements and even a few nods toward power metal. The latter is especially true for the track "In the Wings of the Night". Trallery incorporate a lot of melody in their music and that goes for both the intrumental and the vocal parts. The vocals are predominantly raw and snarling though, but occasionally more melodic. Humberto Pol is actually a rather impressive vocalist. His vocal style is pretty diverse and adds a lot to the band´s music. As mentioned he can sing raw, but also does a James Hetfield (Metallica) impersonation, that works well. He also extensively use a higher pitched rusty voice, that sometimes reminds me of Rob Halford (Judas Priest).
Both Metallica and to some extent Judas Priest are also valid references when describing the instrumental part of the music, but I´d like to add Testament to that equation. Trallery do not try to hide their influences, but they still come up with a relatively "original" sound. The songwriting is decent and sometimes reaches the excellence mark, but there is room for improvement in that department. The blend of thrash, traditional heavy metal and power metal is sometimes a bit confusing, and it doesn´t always work wonders for the band. The two instrumental tracks are also a bit redundant to my ears, so all in all "Catalepsy" is a quality release but also a bit of a mixed bag if you prefer a stylistically cohesive release.
On the plus side Trallery are really well playing and "Catalepsy" features a professional, clear and powerful sound production, which brings out the right aggressive edge in the music. Overall "Catalepsy" is an intriguing debut album by Trallery that shows great promise, but doesn´t fully deliver that promise yet. With a more focused and mature songwriting approach, these guys could deliver something spectacular in the future though and I´ll definitely be keeping an eye out for future releases by them. A 3.5 (70%) rating is deserved.