DEFIANT
“TIME ISN’T HEALING”
Album Review By Iron Mathew
8/10
Defiant are a heavy metal band from the Ukraine forming in 2008 with their debut effort, a four song E.P. released in 2010. The bands first album was released in 2013 with ‘Time Isn’t healing’, their second album, released in 2016.
After the atmospheric, tension building intro ‘Storm’, the second album from Defiant races off at breakneck speed with ‘Milestones Of Time’. Blending rampant guitars, galloping rhythms and furious keyboards, ‘Milestones Of Time’ is a spectacular launch. ‘The Jericho’ is a much heavier stomp, all mighty and majestic as it strides on. With a clean and clear vocal delivery, albeit the chorus line “the jericho” is growled, ‘The Jericho’ is probably a song that has the Defiant signature sound. Keeping the slower, mid tempo pace and very heavy vibe, ‘Funereal Feast’ will slam you against the wall with its thunderous stabs of metal. The combination of keyboards and guitars compliment each other magnificently as every song is beautifully written and perfectly played. The title song off the album ‘Time Isn’t Healing’ is a powerful mid tempo melodic romp. Foot stomping and head nodding are the order of the day as ‘Time Isn’t Healing’ strolls relentlessly on and on through riff after riff.
Throughout the album, there are influences of the progressive genre with ‘According To The Acts’ a prime example. Defiant are not a band afraid to experiment with their sound showing confidence in their own ability. All of the band are very experienced musicians and this fully shows in the quality of the song writing. Legendary bands such as Black Sabbath and Dio always produced superb albums of mid temp, very heavy, doom laden songs with the occasional fast paced romp and Defiant, in the shape of ‘Time Isn’t Healing’ (the album) have followed this path. ‘The Dream’ is an exquisite melodic heavy rock song with soaring guitars and a stomping rhythm with an underlying chug to keep your heading nodding hard. ‘Don’t Trust The Words’ picks up the pace and runs along at a mid to high tempo pace. Thunderous and relentless ‘Don’t Trust The Words’ bristles with heavy metal and has a superb, mosh pit stomp of a break down during the mid section…
At over six minutes in length ‘The Truth And The Lie’ is by far and away the longest song on the album and has a superb European power metal guitar intro, followed by a soaring keyboard passage, before pace and power kick in to push the song along at full tilt. Head banging hard, ‘The Truth And The Lie’ gallops on and on with plenty of music to listen to. With a sudden down turn in the pace, ‘The Grief’ tries its best to be a ballad but fails as it remains too guitar heavy and punchy. ‘The Grief’ displays a more dark and moody feel than the rest of the album and may actually have you swaying from side to as it meanders in its way. With a flurry of keyboards and a furious guitar riff ‘Soul Is Burning’ chugs into life and is ballsy heavy rock as it strides on. Raucous and thunderous ‘Soul Is Burning’ is foot stompingly heavy and will have you head nodding in appreciation. Are Defiant experimenting with this album or just expanding their musical boundaries is open to debate, but for me it is an album that wanders through various genres producing a variety of quality metal and rock songs. The heavy melodic stomp ‘The Eagle’ brings the album to a close with its catchy nature and infectious grooves. Defiant have definitely grown from their first album and are moving onwards and upwards with passion and pride.
Overall, a traditional heavy metal sounding album, blending crunchy riffs, galloping rhythms and soaring keyboards to produce a great album of heavy rock.
TRACKLIST
Storm (Intro)
Milestones Of Time
The Jericho
Funeral Feast
Time Isn’t Healing
According To The Acts
The Dream
Don’t Trust The Words
The Truth And The Lie
The Grief
Soul Is Burning
The Eagle
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