Description

The second full-length from the Norwegian thrashers Critical Solution, Sleepwalker, offers up a fairly solid and engaging turn throughout here. Based on a highly-melodic guitar section that makes for some overall dynamic impact against the strong thrash riffs full of fiery rhythms, the end result is pretty much galloping tempos and the occasional mid-tempo verse that retains itself very nicely with some heavy chugging patterns that keep this one charging along at great speeds for the majority of its running time. This is even nicer with those melodic sections acting as a buffer for those up-tempo riffs that come off rather well as these fiery melodic pieces form the insanely catchy sections of their attack with their more thrash-laden sections getting plenty of energetic passages that get rather enjoyable with this one keeping these in check rather nicely in the running order, not letting too many speed-driven tracks to overwhelm or letting the mid-tempo sections drown out the few random bits of fiery fury poking through which is a far more impressive result here. Given a crisp boost with a solid retro-thrash styled production that keeps this nice and clear to allow the fine vocals plenty of room to croon and the pounding drumming nicely in line with the rest of the album, there’s not a whole lot to dislike here as the one main flaw that pops up here is simply the fact that this attack doesn’t leave room for a lot of variety throughout here so it can appear one-dimensional at times. There’s some of that in the form of three over-long, bloated epics that really have no place being that long and should’ve been trimmed down considerably from what they are as the style seem to support such material, but it’s a mostly forgivable piece. The album’s highlight is the mammoth eleven-minute epic, Dear Mother, which is where you hear all sorts of influences. Besides being the longest and strongest track on the album, it’s also the most daring as it showcases styles not heard on the rest of the album. It’s a little slower than the rest of the album, but make no mistake: this one is a really catchy track. It’s like the perfect marriage of Iron Maiden and Metallica into a single song. The vocals in the chorus are particularly on point here as they capture the raw emotion behind the spirit of the song beautifully. The album also features noble guest appearances by Grave guitarist Mika Langren and Mercyful Fate members Michael Denner and Hank Shermann. So overall though Sleepwalker tends to come off way too familiar at times, there’s more than enough to like here about this effort that it’s worthwhile more often than it fails. So this ends up being a solid choice for those looking for a solid slice of respectable thrash or to enjoy more of the current crop of metal-heads.

Track listing:
1. The Curse
2. Sleepwalker
3. Welcome to Your Nightmare
4. Blood Stained Hands
5. Murder in the Night-instrumental
6. Evidence of Things Unseen
7. LT.Eliot-featuring Mika Lagren from Grave
8. Dear Mother
9. The Death Lament
10. Back from the Grave-featuring Michael Denner and Hank Shermann of Mercyful Fate