Genre: Heavy / Death
Label: Visionaire Records
Country: Greece
Year: 2015
Behind The Shadows, who are from Alexandoupolis, released their first album this month. They are essentially the evolution of GIAN, a Death / Black band, which released a demo, Awaken the Apocalypse, in 2008. They recorded another demo in 2011 that has not been released. It is now 2015 and Chris Tsotras (who was the main member of GIAN) and Paschalis Nikoforidis create Behind The Shadows. With their new name and the friendly participation of members from other local bands they record their self-titled album as a combination of new and old songs.
It goes without saying then, that this album is essentially a mix of different music concepts of the band members, concepts from both their past and present. We should not misunderstand the disparate elements of this release as unrelated, but realize that it is basically the path that will lead to their own personal style. A style which Behind The Shadows may still be searching but that search shows a band that is still being developed and will not slow down to a standstill easily.
They are influenced from almost all the metal spectrum, with both slow and fast parts in their songs, female vocals on some tracks, while others have both clear and brutal vocals alternating. While we talk about their vocals we have to mention their big faux pas, a trap which many Greek bands with English lyrics fall into, which is their accent. In some songs ( especially those with clear vocals ) the accent is so strong that it spoils the rest of the song.
Regardless of the result it is always good to see new bands emerge and take their first steps. Behind The Shadows in their first release have both good and bad points, with the good outweighing the bad, and the bad are easy to correct with hard work and a bit of effort. Thumbs up to the band’s members so they can continue their way, find their personal style and thus offer us something even better next time.
The album will be available digitally in July 20th.
( Editor’s Note: Reviewing an underground band is always a difficult task. Should we rate them based on their possibilities and the difficulties they encounter? Or should we rate them based on the result like we would with a famous band? Personally I would urge you to read the review and consider the text more important than the rating itself, especially in the case of bands belonging to the underground scene).
3/6