Being a bit more than 22 years of average age, MARTRIDEN deliver a very strong, mature and refreshingly varied debut album with The Unsettling Dark.
MARTRIDEN – the Swedish translation for „being ridden by a mare“ – drive mainly on the middle track of a three-lane highway, that is to say, seldom fast and seldom slow. In doing so, aggressive Death Metal with a slight hint of melodic Black Metal is the cornerstones of the sound of the youngsters.
Particularly worth mentioning is the keen sense of the Montana-based quintet of evoking the listener’s most diverse moods. Once you have frosty and ice-cold North Scandinavian landscapes in the mind’s eye, once you enjoy a wonderfully warm autumn day, before you get torn down to earth in your Munich rooftop apartment by unbearable heat and the noise of car parades of Spanish football fans.
But even disturbing factors can’t keep you from being fascinated by the enthusiasm, the musicians’ technical skills, the imaginativeness and ass kicking production.
The cherry on the cake is next to the various classical citations (as e.g. an excerpt of Prelude in C-sharp minor by Rachmaninoff in Prelude) definitely the as expected outstanding guest solo by the exceptional guitar player James Murphy (ex-Death/Obituary/Cancer/Testament). Aside, it is noticeable that MARTRIDEN have a permanent keyboarder namely Kyle Howard who gives the songs more depths with his playing.
Finally, I have to make a note of the fact that the vocals disappear a bit in the background in this production. Besides, I hope that the Americans will address a broader audience with this album and the US-tour that started yesterday. They would have earned it!