Never Obey Again – The End of an Era
Release Date: 22nd September 2023
Label: Scarlet Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Gothic Metal, Industrial Metal, Metalcore.
FFO: Evanescence, Linkin Park, In This Moment, Spiritbox, Paramore, Halestorm.
Review By: Mark Waight
Never Obey Again’s debut album The End of an Era is a great parody, as it is also the beginning of a new era of metal music from an exciting and refreshing new band comprised of five experienced musicians. The End of an Era is a journey of heavy riffs, dramatic melodies fused with modern electronic sounds to create an interesting new direction for the Metal genre.
Italian band Never Obey Again is Carolina Bertelegni (vocals), Alessandro Tuvo (guitar), Alex Pedrotti (guitar), Christiano Trappoli (bass) and Matteo Malchiodi (drums).
Opening and title track The end of an Era is a short melody that introduces you to the band and tantalises you with what’s to come. The Storm then kicks things off for real and presents us our first glimpse of Carolina’s lovely clean vocals and shuddering metal guitar riffs. The tempo is steady yet powerful as the intensity builds towards the next instalment.
The throbbing and pulsating Toxic Feelings, adds a real depth to the music as it worms its way through your ears to your mind’s eye. Headphones were just built for this type of full, rich sound! Audiophiles, check it out, you won’t be disappointed!
Take Care of You ups the ante and pounds out a very modern, progressive riff that grabs you by the collar and shakes you to the core. Everyone wants to be Stronger, and this song does just that as it pumps you up like a steroid fuelled body builder with a big dose of Nu-metal attitude and some cool futuristic guitar work.
The tick-tock of a clock introduction of Wake Up immediately grabs your attention and maintains it throughout with a superb composition that drifts between dreamy Gothic and full-on Metalcore riffage. There is also a fabulous guitar solo to boot! We all love an Underdog, and Never Obey Again are no exception. This rebel rousing sing-along tune is so wonderful that you won’t be able to help yourself from joining in!
What If the band Never Obey Again wrote a great song, well they have, in fact a whole album of them. This one is a banging track with an even more banging riff, set to get your pulse racing.
Penultimate track 945 is the ultimate showcase for another very tight band performance as you are pulled ‘to and fro’ with a comprehensive modern metal composition that gives and gives. Last up, The Cranberries classic Zombie gets a fresh makeover with a very nice interpretation from Never Obey Again giving it a brand-new lease of life. Nothing could surpass the original, but this comes close.
If you like me are a fan of modern metal with its cross-genre tendencies, then The End of an Era by Never Obey Again will be right up your street. There is not a brutal vocal in sight in The End of an Era, which makes such a refreshing change and proves you really don’t have to follow the crowd to make great music. Never Obey Again have a great future and The End of an Era comes highly recommended by me.
(4 / 5)
