CD Title: A New Shade Of Black For The Soul
Year: 2007
Website: www.risetoaddiction.com
MySpace: myspace.com/risetoaddiction
Label: Mausoleum
Featured on: Loucifer Speaks and possibly Empty Playground in the future
Rating: 9.8 / 10
More Links: Please feel free to start a Rise To Addiction thread on the Loucifer Speaks forum
It's strange, I've got a whole load of albums to review at the moment, but for some unknown reason I was suddenly drawn to this one – an album I've had in my collection for quite a while now.
So, what made Rise To Addiction's first full length catch my attention? I'm not entirely sure, but one day I just happened to rediscover it amongst the huge music collection that takes up most of my front room. Once I'd put it back in the CD player I found that it was incredibly difficult to get it back out again... and then it found it's way onto my MP3 player... and then I found myself listening to it on the way to work... and then when I was at work... and then, well – you get the idea. It just seemed like every time the album had finished it said "Please play me again!". I thought it would be rude to say "no".
Rise To Addiction are everything that a melodic metal band should be. They're melodic, the songs are loaded with fantastically catchy hooks, addictive choruses, pounding rhythms and astounding guitar work.
I was already familiar with a few of the tracks on this album because they appear on the band's EP. While "Falling As One" and "To A God Unknown" are still a couple of my favourite RTA tracks, I've also found myself becoming addicted to "Cold Season" (the riff in this one just begs you to bang your head), "Moth To A Flame", "One Sweet Minute" (it has an excellent groove) and "This Ride". In fact, most of the tracks here are worthy of a listen (or several). I did, however, find that "Fessonia" and "The Hive" took a while to grow on me and so, for that reason, I didn’t give this album the full marks. Perhaps that was a bit mean…
I'd recommend this album to anyone with even just a passing interest in modern metal. RTA tread the line between metal and rock with relative ease and I'd imagine that they’d appeal to fans of both genres.