Ah Scandinavia, that beautiful part of the world where metal is so popular it's actually part of mainstream culture! Imagine that! Sweden in particular is a big melting point for metal bands to come out of including AMON AMARTH and TURISAS. NEGATIVE SELF come from the Swedish capitol, Stockholm. Yet their classic, New Wave of British Heavy Metal style mixed with Punk and Thrash suggests that they come straight out of the black country.

Their latest self titled effort really shows off the band's talent. They've carved out some seriously killer melodies and guitar solos that sound as if the band have been working on their chops for years. When the guitars, drums and bass come together there is a huge impact and you can feel the vibrations of the instruments. Songs like "No Tomorrow" and "Self Destruction...the Pain Never Ends" have some of the most impressive, epic solos and the way the melodies echo give it more depth, however.

While the album is a good effort from the band, there are a few disappointing things about it that NEGATIVE SELF didn't manage to achieve. There are a few stand out tracks but actually most of them come across as fillers and to make things worse, the singers' voice is really lack luster. It just sounds like a constant drone. In a way there's a sort of grunge ethic to his vocals with a similar sound to Chris Cornell from sound garden but with the powerful music coming from the rest of the band, it seems really out of place.

NEGATIVE SELF's debut is not a bad album by far. What they aimed to do with their sound, they did well, so well that they even managed to pull off an authentic take of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal sound. But in my opinion the choice of singer really bothers me and lets down the music making it quite boring in some places. On a whole, it's a good effort but quite frankly it's only something to listen to if you have the time. It's not spectacular in the slightest.