TERAMAZE — Anhedonia (review)

Album · 2012 · Thrash Metal

4.5/5 · 2012-07-13
adg211288

Although Teramaze is getting towards celebrating twenty years since their 1993 formation, their 2012 album release Anhedonia stands as only their third studio album, their last being Tears to Dust fourteen years previously. Anhedonia itself has been long in the making (since 2009) and features the last recordings of drummer Julian Percy, who sadly died in 2009.

Teramaze is one of those bands that no matter where I look around the Internet everyone seems to have a different idea about what style of music these guys actually play. I’ve seen them considered traditional metal, progressive metal, thrash metal and power metal to name just a handful of tags I’ve seen attached to Teramaze. To these ears however the band has produced a thrash metal album in Anhedonia, but one with additional layers of melodic influence in both the music and vocals than the majority of the genre.

Personally speaking, I’m not a fan of the thrash metal genre mostly because of the vocal approach used by many of the bands, therefore Teramaze’s Anhedonia makes a nice change for me, making the album a much easier and enjoyable listen. However while that works for me the more invested thrash fan may miss the aggression that comes from the normal approach. Not to say that Anhedonia doesn’t have its aggressive riffs and even vocals, but they’re very evenly balanced with melodic elements. Calling this a melodic thrash metal album wouldn’t be wrong. So long as you’ve got a wide taste in metal though there is very little to dislike about Anhedonia.

The tracks here are pretty easy to get into and by the time I’m a few in the release has my full attention even though the band don’t really vary their formula a lot, the songs are that gripping that it ceases to matter once the album has infected you with its speedy riffs and powerful vocals courtesy of Brett Rerekura.

The final track, Ever Enhancing II, is the only real curveball, being an acoustic ballad. It only serves to highlight that the band can turn their hands into different styles though, and vocally Rerekura shines just as much as with the thrash metal. The acoustic guitars here are excellent as well, it’s definitely an unexpected highlight as the album and one of the few cases where ending on a ballad has worked for me.

Anhedonia is one of the biggest surprises of the year so far for me - a thrash metal album I can not only tolerate but highly enjoy. An exceptional grade rating is easily deserved for Teramaze and based on this release one can only hope that the next won’t be so long in coming.

8.8/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))

more than 2 years ago
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dtguitarfan wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I think probably the biggest reason it reminded me of Metallica is that I thought the singer sounded like a young Hetfield.

adg211288 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I guess I get the Metallica comparison, although this is a much more modern approach. I don't know enough about Disturbed to compare.

dtguitarfan wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Nice review! I was also surprised at how enjoyable I found this album right away. Did they remind you a lot of Metallica's older stuff, like "Ride the Lightning" and "And Justice For All"? And they kinda remind me of Disturbed sometimes too.