PERSUADER-Necromancy

Frontiers Music srl

After a hiatus of almost six years Swedish metallers Persuader are back with their fifth album but it is their debut for Frontiers. The group added Nocturnal Rites guitarist Fredrik Mannberg to their ranks and after hearing the seven tracks on ‘Necromancy’ I wonder what Persuader are doing on a label that has built its reputation on melodic rock, progressive rock and AOR mostly.

Persuader is by far the most brutal band on the Italian label. With their relentless combination of power, thrash and even (some) speed metal they really sound very different than most of their label mates. I don’t want to compare too obvious but more than once this band reminds me of none other than Iced Earth with Matt Barlow singing. Very powerful, pretty fast songs that last over five, six, seven, eight minutes and in Jens Carlsson Persuader has a vocalist who is very much out there at times. I have the feeling that sometimes the singer wants too much and that his timing is not always fantastic. There is not much wrong with the music as the guitarists Mannberg and Emil Norberg really go to town with power riffs and ditto solos but Carlsson sometimes comes over as a loose cannon. With a bit more control this could have been even more impressive. What is also a bit lacking is variety. The band keeps pressing the gas pedal on the first six songs before scaling back for the first time on album closer ,,The Infernal Fires’’, that with its 8.29 minutes turns out to be the most epic of all the songs on ‘Necromancy, although soon enough this song (also) gains speed and tempo. If you are into Iced Earth etcetera you should give ‘Necromancy’ a spin. It is not completely after my taste as Carlsson is too much for me at times, nevertheless I must confess that certain qualities are absolutely there. But I still find it a strange thing that this outfit landed a deal with our melodic rockers from Napels.