Tales For The Unspoken
“CO2”
Thrash / Death Metal
Release: 11th April 2015
Via Raising Legends Records
“CO2” is one of those albums you need to listen to more than once before you form a solid opinion about it. Not in the way that it will take a couple of times for the music to sink in, no; it’s just that there’s so much to it that you won’t be able to grasp it all at first. Tales For The Unspoken are not reinventing the wheel either, or even merging several opposite genres into a new one. They do draw influences from other styles – hence the creativity and richness of their sound – but the outcome is that dear ol’ mixture of thrash and death metal. And there lies the beauty of it: they stay within the boundaries of their genre and yet manage to stay original. Saying that the opening track, “Burned Alive”, has its aggression shaved off by the melody of its chorus may not appear that much of an originality nowadays, but once you hear how exquisitely refined it sounds, with guitarist Nuno Khan’s clean vocals, without compromising the aforementioned aggression, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. Or the fluid guitar solo in “Soul For A Soul”. The groovy bass line of “World’s Biggest Lie” (which features Equaleft-Malone on lead guitar). And speaking of guests, there’s the stout participation of Miguel Inglês, also from Equaleft, in “I, Claudius”; the sharpness of Terror Empire-Ricardo Martins’ contribution to “Crossroads”; and the seduction of Joana Vieira in “Resilient Winter”. All of it immersed under an avalanche of riffs, spiced up with meticulous breakdowns. Never a dull moment with this “CO2”.
4 / 5
Renata “Pieni” Lino
Valkyrian Music 