Feast For the Hated

Imagika has gotten alot of good press lately. They play seemingly Thrash/Power metal, dominated by chugga-chugga riffs, and aggressive vocals. Some of the riffs on here such as on Your Creator are pretty cool. The majority though, isn't. They tend to drift into soulless metalcore territory, and allthough Vocalist Norman Skinner is pretty skilled, the trading between clean, slight operatic, and harsh vocals is annoying, and doesn't sound agressive at all. I find this appealing more towards the metalcore crowd rather than the Power/Thrash horde.The actual idea behind this isn't that bad. As I mentioned, there are some good and rather listenable music here. But the songwriting is damn limited and uncreative. They seem to go with the chugga formula all the way, which makes this flatout boring. Behind Immortal Eyes is a good song which actually grabbed my attention after 6-7 or so listens. The vocal melodies here are very nice, especially on the chorus, but then on the other hand, the boring and sterile riffs keeps this from being great After the title-track, the level rises a couple of notches with memorable and cooler songs such as Thinning Out the Herd and Held Beneath. This is nothing in particular though. Fans of Nevermore will maybe like this etter than I did, but this is really a more out-watered and crappier version of them.