Thursday, 8 August 2013

Droid - Malfunction demo (2013) | 77%


These are the riffs you are looking for.


Droid is a new band from Ontario and their first demo is a very cool piece of metal. Hailing from the Voivod land, they can be qualified as an apprentice to the seminal band but they're so much more than that.

You can almost guess what it's gonna be with the simple yet mysterious cover art. I have no idea what it' supposed to be, an alien with some kind of gun, a weird nose with a potent infection? I don't know but it's cool and evokes the early art of Away, you know before he tried his hand at computerized stuff and it turned to shit? The green tape gives you a good hint that you'll listen to something more intelligent than your average thrash band. The logo, damn cool, reminds me of a thrash version of fellow Ontarian black metal Sylvus. A weird thing to say but I love coincidences!

Much more interesting than most rethrash bands wearing Municipal Waste caps, they mix the idiosyncratic approach of Piggy's distinctive riffing with a catchy speed metal approach and some progressive overtones. It's quite melodic, both in the instrumental and the vocals department, it's not as brutal as a band like Sacrifice. Nevertheless, it's not as progressive as new prog thrash gods Vektor. It has this heavy/speed metal edge found in many Ontarian bands (Axxion, Midnight Malice...), while not NWOBHM worshipers themselves, the traditionalism of the scene is felt within their solos especially in the latest track “Ceres Solution”. The old school feel of the production helped the songwriting in my opinion. It's not as bombastic and modern as Striker's latest album and it's good that way. The raw quality is good for the cold approach of the trio. Hard hitting riffs and heavy bass lines are your friends here. The release is fast paced, 4 songs of 3 to 4 minutes and the songwriting is quite good for a first demo.

Their sound is a fresh mix of thrash and speed metal with some progressive influences from time to time. Jacob Montgomery leads the charge with his guitar playing, he has good chops and while a second guitarist could be needed sometimes, it's not a serious issue. His vocals are varied as well, from high clean vocals to a more raspy harsh thrash voice, the second track “Zenith in Red” showcases both styles. I prefer the clean approach since I think it gives an original sound to the thrash/speed songs. What would be fun to hear is a full blown mix of early Voivodian thrash and Canadian NWOBHMish speed metal, the best of both world, I would say.

A very promising band indeed, get their tape, it's green and stuff.

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