Who's in the mood for some contemporary and melodic metal out of France? Newcomers ACKERON are here to unleash their debut album upon the world, "Polarity", out now via Melancholia Records. It's short and sweet at 7 tracks, but it packs and punch and doesn't waste any of its limited run time.

As tends to be the case with many French bands, ACKERON have developed a unique sound that truly does belong to them. Their self stated influences are obvious, with the band citing groups like GOJIRA, ARCHITECTS, and SOILWORK as being inspirations. But all said and done it morphs into a truly contemporary sound that doesn't sound directly like any other band or genre. Rooted in metalcore, with proggy vibes, melodic lines, breakdowns, harsh vocals, and cleans. It's unique, and it sounds great. The production also sounds fantastic, which is great to hear from a new and small band on a smaller label.

Opener "Hold Me Now" is a perfect opener, serving to provide a broad summary of what the album sounds like. It really hits on all major points, finding a way to work in breakdowns, cleans, screams, and plenty of melody and intricate lead guitar. Track 2 "Come Closer" finds a heavier footing, but also a proggier one. The middle section features beautiful and jazzy lead guitar melodies, and we even hear some brass in the background furthering the jazz feel. But then it's right back to the heavier groove and chunk to cap off this fantastic and well rounded track.

The rest of the album slowly finds a heavier footing, with a lot more groove, chunk, and breakdowns than the first two songs. But while I would normally consider this a positive, for ACKERON I think it's actually a bit of a weakness. Their proggier and more experimental sounds are where they are at their best, and falling into predictable metalcore groove and chunk, while it is welcome and fun, is actually a bit derivative and doesn't feel like everything it can be, simply because of the standard they set for themselves in the first two tracks. Now that isn't too say it's bad, it's certainly not. And they do still have plenty of proggier and experimental parts in those numbers, title track "Polaris" has some wicked cool lead guitar work. I just hope to see ACKERON delve more into the experimental sound in future releases and not fall back on the typical metal, simply because it's obvious they're better than that. But, this is still only a young band finding their sound on a debut effort, and so all said and done it's really awesome.

That being said, the album does peak for me at track 2 "Come Closer", which is my favorite track on the album. But it's a rock solid debut effort, the band is locked into a sound that is uniquely theirs, and it is definitely worth checking out.