LOVEBITES — Awakening from Abyss (review)

LOVEBITES — Awakening from Abyss album cover Album · 2017 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
5/5 ·
Warthur
Don't be fooled for a second by the publicity photo showing the Lovebites members in little white dresses and high heels (so far as I can tell, that's a tie-in to the angelic figure on the album cover). Don't, in particular, be fool enough to assume that an all-woman band out of Japan is going to be some sort of pop-based spin on metal like Babymetal offer (though Babymetal's style is artistically exciting in its own right). Lovebites are, in fact, the most forceful and heavy group to hit the power metal scene for a good long time.

Lovebites consists of the rhythm section of the presently-dormant metal group Destrose (Miho on bass and Haruna on drums) with new musical partners; guitarists Midori and Mi-Ya seem to have prior metal chops, whilst lead singer Asami is so far as I can tell a new musical discovery who makes her recorded debut here. Perhaps the highest praise I can offer Asami is that she sounds absolutely confident with the group and delivers a forceful performance which is perfectly adapted to the music - epic power metal in which the dual guitar leads are constructed on a foundation of pounding, driving rhythmic force from Miho and Haruna.

Fantasy power metal is the sort of thing I tend to be a bit fussy about - I like some cheesy nonsense on occasion, but it has to be just right to really engage me. Lovebites hits the spot with astonishing ease, perhaps because they're not afraid to dip into the more rough-edged speed metal and heavy metal roots of the subgenre when they want to give things a bit more of an edge. (The intro to Scream For Me, for instance, wouldn't be entirely out of place on Judas Priest's Painkiller.) The end result is a sound that effortlessly breezes past any of my reservations about the subgenre and entrenches Lovebites at the top of the power metal mountain as far as I'm concerned.

Combining new material and updates of the songs from the original Lovebites EP, this debut album offers a striking statement of intent from a band who, if they play their cards right, could become the hottest new metal force on the planet. If that sounds like high praise, believe it or not I'm actually holding back - though this is a truly amazing album, the group is still new and the idea that they may actually get better as they hone their craft has me positively salivating for their next releases.

Sometimes you run into an album which just instantly snags you and makes you an immediate convert to a band's cause: for me, Awakening From Abyss is like that.
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