DRONES

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ALBUM REVIEW by Industrialized Metal

http://www.industrializedmetal.com/r_vortice.htm



Artist: DRONES

Album: Vortice

Year: 2007



Oh great, another band from the United States. No, not really. Well, they are from the U.S.A., but this doesn’t seem like “just another band” from the Redneck regions. Drones is based in Minnesota, but exists out of three bandmembers with Latin American (or maybe Spanish) roots. Therefore, the major part of their debut album ‘Vortice’ is filled with Spanish songs. A quick look on their official site (which redirects us to their MySpace site) shows us that things like “revolution”, “civil disobidience” and “love, life and death” can be found among their influences. ‘Vortice’ is released by Drones Records (read: self-released) and consists of eleven tracks, of which six are in Spanish and three in English. The other two? A combination of both!



‘Anger’s Bliss’ is the first track of the album. It’s a quite electro based track, with wicked sampling and diverse guitar- and vocalwork. The uptempo part gets followed by some surprisingly brutal part, to end up in the original easy listening attitude of the song again. ‘Cronica De Un Sueño’ is the first Spanish track on the record. It’s built on a heavy bassline and some crazy electronics, while the other musical aspects give the track a little dark atmosphere. ‘Oscar’ comes up next. It opens with some crazy programming, to get followed by a decent more uptempo track with powerful guitars and crazy sampling. The vocal parts have a little touch of the rap metal of RATM, but the more brutal parts bring the track far away from a rip-off (fortunately). ‘Diversify’ shows a great combination of music samples and clean vocal parts. Furthermore, the song contains easy listening programming and guitarwork. ‘Como Puedes Respirar' is more of a gothic rock track, with lesser electronic samples but a very powerful and dark chorus. ‘Mother Tongue’ is probably the most “metal” track of the album. It opens with thrashy guitarwork and some midtempo programming, which is (combined with the various vocal works) a pleasant plague all over the song. ‘Soledad’ consists of Rammstein likely guitarwork and programming, but the vocal lines and the weird keyparts (sounds like a flute) give the song a different identity. ‘La Carne Del Indio’ is in my opinion the best track of the album. It contains gentle keylines, wicked programming works and brutal guitarwork. The instrumental intermezzo (pay special attention to the guitarwork!) is as surprising as wellfitting. Nada is a more atmospheric track again, with a heavy bassline, easy going programming and catchy vocal lines. The trick of adding distorted guitars on the chorus to make it more dark and powerful has been used on this track as well, just like on some different tracks before. Break Away is also a more atmospheric track, but the song structure is more original. There is more variation in the guitarwork, and the programming is a little more wicked. The album ends with the longest track of the release, named Lo Que Me Cuesta. It contains modern sampling, gentle programming and a bouncing bassline. Some little keylines are added to make the track more atmospheric, as well the guitarwork.



Drones turned out to be a more than pleasant surprise for me indeed. I cannot think of a band who sound like this band does, although I must admit that here and there some parts sound a little flat. But, keeping in mind that this is only a debut, this band can only improve even more!



Vote: 83 / 100



Review by: Gerardohttps://www.cdbaby.com/cd/drones



CONTACT, INFO, BOOKING, ETC: drones@myspace.comdron78[at]gmail.comhodgepodgemusicproductions[at]gmail.com HODGE PODGE MUSIC - ASAP -