Any time that a form of music that was once “in vogue” is primed
\nto make a comeback into the spotlight, it faces one major hurdle:
\nHow do musicians inject some level of new blood into the genre
\nwithout forgetting the roots that first made it popular? It’s too
\neasy to just re-strap on the instruments and pretend that things
\nare the same as they were before… but if that’s done, not only
\ndoes the music sound out of place, but the genre is almost
\nsentenced to a quick publicity death.<\/p>\n
Leave it to the German metal quartet Sculpture to figure out
\njust how to do it. Injecting a bit of Gothic and progressive
\nflavors into the mix, and you have a self-titled debut album that,
\nquite frankly, is often fun to listen to.<\/p>\n
The band – vocalist Stefan, guitarist\/keyboardist Lotte, bassist
\nHans and drummer Thomas – have a very natural sound to their music,
\nalmost as if they have been playing together since metal’s birth
\ncries were heard. Unlike many metal bands, Sculpture adds something
\nunique to their music: texture. Proving that you don’t need to play
\nguitar solos at 800 miles an hour or have the volume cranked up to
\neardrum-splitting range, Sculpture seem to carve out their own
\nunique niche.<\/p>\n
The opening tracks, “Over” and “Deniers”, set the tone for the
\nwhole album very well. “Deniers” often had me feeling like I was
\nlistening to Manowar in their heyday, but Sculpture never lost
\ntheir own unique signature at those times. Stefan’s vocals prove
\ntheir power comes from solid delivery of the lyrics without needing
\nto resort to usual metal vocal trickery, while Lotte’s guitar and
\nkeyboard work shaped the mood of the tracks well. (It’s also
\ninteresting to note that, had I not read the liner notes or the
\npress kit, I never would have suspected that this was a German
\nband.)<\/p>\n
From tracks like “I’m Free” to “Why” to “Spring Of Wonder,”
\nSculpture<\/i> remains an album that highlights the best of the
\nheavy metal genre while redefining the scene. The songwriting,
\nperformance and production levels of quality always remain high,
\neven though the listeners may find themselves emotionally drained
\nby the end of the album. “Whatever” and “Down The Ages” are by no
\nmeans bad tracks, but they do come at the tail end of a musical
\njourney that asks you to comprehend a lot.<\/p>\n
If any one band is going to help to redefine what heavy metal is
\nas we approach the next millenium, Sculpture is definitely at the
\ntop of the list to lead the charge. This album is a refreshing
\nchange of pace, and is one that you’re sure to have difficulties
\nremoving from your CD changer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7308],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38787","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sculpture","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38787"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}