Seventh One - Sacrifice
Massacre Records
Power Metal
10 songs (49'45)
Release year: 2002
Seventh One, Massacre Records
Reviewed by Marty
Surprise of the month
This release, Sacrifice marks the debut release from this Swedish Power Metal outfit. The band was formed in 1997 and generated a lot of very postive feedback from the press for their demo CD. Metal magazines such as Rock Hard and Heavy Oder Was heralded them as being one of the hottest unsigned bands around. That particular demo CD landed them a deal with Massacre Records. The band consists of Christopher Hermannson, guitar, Johannes Losback, guitar, Jorgen Olsson, bass, Tobias R. Kellgren, drums and the Norweigian, Rhino Fredh on lead vocals. This album was produced by Lars Ratz (Metalium).

This band really has an impressive and very heavy sound. The quality of the songs, the arrangements and the guitar playing all has the sound and feel of very seasoned veterans. Most of this album is a very thick, guitar heavy Power Metal with the guitars way out front in the mix (like it should be). Too many other Power Metal acts tend to bury the guitars, almost delegating them to more of a rhythmic role rather than providing the punch for the song. Some of this album has a Hammerfall-like True Metal sound with the speedy riffs and very fast tempos, especially Eternal Life In Lies. A fair chunk of this release really has more of a U.S. Power Metal style along the likes of Iced Earth, Jag Panzer or more recently, Firewind. The title track, Sacrifice along with The Seventh Eye, and Eternally, all feature that type of metal sound. Hallowed Ground features some slow and pounding heavy riffing and also contains a very Blind Guardian style chorus section. The Fall, again features a slower, pounding heavy beat and is a mix between some Iced Earth aggressive style metal and a more dreamy, atmospheric Nevermore flavor. The rest of the tracks range from 80's style metal to a more varied Power Metal style.

Lead vocalist, Rhino Fredh, has a good voice and uses it very effectively for the most part. His voice is really great and really jumps in with full force to the verse sections of the songs. There's a couple of tracks that are really weakened by very average and uninspiring chorus sections which are otherwise very good tracks. The use of background vocals in an attempt to produce some Viking Metal like choir-like effects don't work very well either and result in a few choruses sounding rather cheesy. Helping to overcome this is an abundance of great chunky and fast guitar riffs and some great rhythmic changes. A few tracks also feature some Helloween style speedy harmony guitar leads.

There's some minor production flaws that I thought were very noticeable, mainly with the lead vocals. The level of the vocals is not consistent on all the songs. A couple of tracks have the lead voice buried in the mix with everything else being louder (even the background vocals) and in some instances the vocals have a very dry and almost hollow sound to them.

Aside from that, this is an excellent effort and a great debut album from a band that is sure going to one to watch for in the future. I love the varied style on this album. No two songs really sound alike or have the same tempo. They range from very fast and heavy to mid tempo to pounding slow and heavy (and every combination in between). I love the big thick and nasty guitar tone to this band and this is one of those albums where the vocals take a bit of a back seat to the music. The riffs are so clever, catchy and good that you'll find yourself paying more attention to those than the vocals. With some work on chorus structure and melodies, this band will certainly produce a killer album in the not to distant future......maybe their second album?

Killing Songs :
Sacrifice, Hallowed Ground and The Fall
Marty quoted 80 / 100
Other albums by Seventh One that we have reviewed:
Seventh One - What Should Not Be reviewed by Marty and quoted 70 / 100
3 readers voted
Average:
 85
You did not vote yet.
Vote now

There are no replies yet to this review
Be the first one to post a reply!