Hi Everyone,
I’m Rick, and am very proud to be joining Dawn & Jon at The Metal Asylum to write reviews. For those that don’t know I have worked with Dawn before and she has been a close and valuable friend for a long time. I also played drums in Heavy Rock/Metal bands for 30 odd years, have been writing for 10 and also ran my own metal website for a few years until recently, when my life took a nosedive, from which I am slowly recovering. I actually stopped listening to music for 4 months, which has never happened to me before. It has always been my constant companion and it couldn’t last.
Over the last 4 weeks I have, once again, immersed myself in all things Metal & Rock and have had the pleasure of listening to loads of great new album releases. However, the one that has made me REALLY sit up and want to write again is “We Are Disconnected”, the second album from French Modern/Progressive Metal band Disconnected. It gave me the ‘shiver’ I get when I know I am listening to something special.
This is my first time listening to Disconnected and I think their name and album title is somewhat telling, as I have been feeling incredibly disconnected lately and the irony isn’t lost on me that this is the most ‘connected’ I have felt to an album in many months.
That feeling of connection arrives immediately, with opening track, the aptly titled, ‘Life Will Always Find Its Way’. It begins with a lone guitar before erupting into life and everything screams quality. It has a perfect blend of melody and power, a perfect blend of clean and harsh vocals and an incredibly catchy chorus. It all feels so well written and put together and to cap it all the production is HUGE!
Next up is ‘King Of The World’ and everything I said above applies again, with the added bonus that you really begin to hear how good guitarists Adrian Martinot and Florian Mérindol are. ‘Your Way To Kill’ is a more ballad driven track that showcases the huge vocal talents of Ivan Pavlakovic without ever descending into cheese and ‘The Only Truth’ is another excellent track with a guitar solo that really lets rip.
I’m not one for track by track reviews but all 8 compositions on the album are so good I could easily talk about each of them equally. None of them sound alike but they work so well as a collection. It really feels like an awful lot of time and thought has gone into track placement and arrangement. Soloing is superb and is up there with Scar Symmetry as far as I’m concerned and that is always a plus point for me. I love how powerful and aggressive Disconnected are without ever losing sight of the melody. The whole album will be stuck in your head after a couple of listens. I also cannot fail to mention the bass guitar of Romain Laure and drumming of Jelly Cardarelli who are both excellent and hold everything together without sacrificing their individuality.
I’m an old Metalhead and there was a time, in the distant past, when you could count the number of good French Metal bands on one finger. Thankfully, those day have long gone. Disconnected have awoken me from an acute depressive slumber and I thank them for that.
Due to my circumstances, I may be a late starter listening to music in 2022, but I am catching up and “We Are Disconnected” proudly sits at the top my ‘album of the year’ list. It will take a mighty fine effort for another band to remove it!
Track Listing
01. Life Will Always Find Its Way
02. King Of The World
03. Your Way To Kill
04. The Only Truth
05. I Fall Again
06. That’s How I’ll Face The End
07. Primal Rage
08. A World Of Futile Pains
Band Members
Adrian Martinot – Guitar
Ivan Pavlakovic – Vocals
Romain Laure – Bass
Florian Mérindol – Guitar
Jelly Cardarelli – Drums
This review is solely the property of Rick Tilley and The Metal Asylum.