Points: 8,5

With Imbalance there is a very remarkable album available now. Not only that there is finally a band from Muenster again, which could bag lot of credits, no, but also the album itself knows how to convince with such a high level of quality and autonomy, you miss on a lot of debut albums. After hardly 3 years of band history and 2 released demo CD's MOURNING CARESS could get hold of a deal with Arise Records and present now their debut album Imbalance.

Musically the lads combine typical Scandinavian melodic Death Metal as you can find with In Flames with thrash influences which remaind me of Kreator and Destruction plus a lacing of Rock'N Roll. Most of the time the 5 guys are pretty fast on the way, without getting out of hand in their high speed thrashings. Just sporadicly the guys reduce the pace and let flow in mid tempo parts where you can bang your head off like in Hope Dies At Last and Escape. The opener Creating A Hell is the best example to show you where the journey will end up, an absolutely Death/ Thrash crusher which leaves you without any desire. Imbalance spreads loads of energy and power you can't hardly elude, although myself personally needed several passes until the music got stuck deep into my ears. In the meantime singer Gerrit is shouting through the abysses of human life circumstances. Only once you will get his clean voice in a strophe in Hope Dies At Last. There could be more but on the other hand, singing in this way keeps up a certain dose of aggressiveness and energy. The production is very powerful and there's no need to fright any comparisons. It still doesn't wonder because it comes from Andy Classen ( Stage One Studio ). The wonderful cover artwork is done by Niklas Sundin.

Imbalance as a whole piece doesn't have any weaknessess and keeps the high level from the beginning. MOURNING CARESS have delivered a really well done album and got all the credits rightly. After 10 amazing tracks and a running time of 41:27 minutes you will look up confused and think: "It's already over? I need to listen to it again!". MOURNING CARESS are definitely one of the German newcomer 2002! So don't miss their live shows at Summers Breeze and Bands Battle and listen to Imbalance!

Mourning Caress