Before heading into this review, some friendly advice to help worldwide journalists I'd like to pass on. If you are a band seeking out a following beyond native country borders, it would be helpful to have background/ biographical information in more than your native tongue. Deciphering what I can on Sweden's OUTTRIGGER from their official site, this quintet of younger twenty-something musicians started in 2009, working their way up the status ladder through some EP and single releases. "The Last Of Us" is the full-length before me currently; a 10-song effort that has a Modern Hard Rock meets Cyber Metal foundation- and could signal the future of what music may develop into in the coming decades.

Groove and hooks are at the heart of songs such as "No Excuse" and "You Left As You Came" - not necessarily as Cyber heavy as say AMARANTHE but there are segments that come up like that. Otherwise certain tracks have that Pop/Punk meets Modern Rock feel that would be tailor made for American consumption: acts such as TRAPT, ALTER BRIDGE, or POP EVIL on the up tempo "Colder" or the guitar chug-a-thon "One with the Pain". Vocalist Simon Peryon capably has a strong register, hitting those money notes with conviction and also displaying a lot of fun loving attitude during these tracks. To lighten the mood a touch, "Awaken Me" appears in a stripped down, acoustic manner, the female vocal supplementation making this an obvious commercial cut for the group.

OUTTRIGGER just performs their material in an energetic fashion, keeping the melodies very comfortable for sing-a-long, head bobbing engagement. A lot of the faster drumming from John Löfgren where he flexes his double bass chops has a lot of Melodic Death qualities - which I think helps the group gain a little bit more of a versatile following beyond the norm. Adhering to an all killer, no filler philosophy, "The Last of Us" should make a lot of in roads for the group - as this is Metal enough for most and also Melodic to capture a wide swath of followers.<