THE SYMPHONY OF SCREAMS — Heed to the Voices (review)

THE SYMPHONY OF SCREAMS — Heed to the Voices album cover Album · 2008 · Alternative Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Kev Rowland
Imagine if you will a primary school fete, where parents have been getting involved to raise as many funds for the school as possible. We have all attended many of these in our lives, but the one at Wainui school the other month was rather different. Here the suggestion had been made that they ought to have some bands playing, and charge for admission. One of the guys behind this was record label boss and producer Te Matera, who also plays guitar with TSOS. Given that many of the acts that afternoon are signed to Triple A, and that Te Matera was running the sound desk most of the day (having provided it and virtually everything else free of charge), it was only fitting that TSOS found themselves pounding out grunge in broad daylight. It was great to see the kids running around and having so much fun, but some of their parents weren’t quite sure what was going on!

The debut album by TSOS was originally released in 2007, with Te Matera on guitar and vocals (previously with Sundog in the UK), Russell Hansen guitar/vocals (ex-8 Ft Sativa, Hollow), Karl Moore bass/guitars (ex-Hollow) and Mike ‘Bones’ Coney on drums. Although their sound is based very much in grunge metal, there is actually a lot more going on and Te Matera likes to describe them as grunge prog – I wouldn’t quite go that far, but I can certainly understand where he is coming from, especially if you treat the term ‘progressive’ as a way of thinking and of bringing together different ideas and genres as opposed to sounding like another Genesis clone.

Both Te Matera and Russell provide lead vocals, sometimes singing as a hardened emotional duo, and at others letting the other take the spotlight, while in Karl they have a bassist who is actually a better guitarist than either of them so they let him shine as well (Karl really wanted to join the band, but they already had two guitarists and needed a bassist so he took the job – when they play live he mostly plays bass, but the other two also take turns so that he can show what he can do with six-strings as well). This is a very polished album, with small interludes here and there, and enough breaks and dynamics to allow them to really let loose when they want to with maximum effect. This album made such an impact when it was released that they were the top placed NZ band at Rock 2 Wellington in 2008, where they supported the likes of Alice Cooper, Kiss and Ozzy. I’m not a major fan of grunge, but I really like this. www.aaarecords.com/Symphony-of-Screams/
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed