The hills are alive with the sound of Metal!

Sorry I realize that reference is going to go over, the head of most Metalheads, which is for the best, but with GARAGEDAYS being from Austria, I could not resist.

And Metal is what these guys are all about with "Something Black", their 4^th album since their inception in 2005, and they go beyond the band their name suggests, METALLICA, even in the past working with 'TALLICA producer Flemming Rasmussen, there sound goes beyond the Bay Area Thrash Icons, although there are some places where they come damn close in places "And Again" has some real PAPA HET-isums, and "Out Of Control" has that chunky slow menace METALLICA used to do so well.  In fact for people who like that bands earlier stuff I would suggest these guys are doing it better than them these days.

But let's not get hung up on that, because these guys play a brand of distinctly Euro Metal.  Chunky, Fast where it needs to be, heavy as heck, riffy Metal, sometimes bordering on Thrash, more like the powerful hard and heavy Metal of ACCEPT with UDO on vocals for example, there are times where Marco's vocals have a similar raspy, snarly quality.  For example look no further than "I Be There For You", a stunning mid paced, twin guitar attack rocker!

And then they throw in a couple of slow numbers.  I'm not saying either "My Own Way" or "To My Soul" are ballads, far from it.   The former is a fairly typical slow emotional Metal number of the highest quality.  Whilst the latter is a more mournful, melonconic number, which I really like, it has an almost bluesy feel to it, especially the excellent soloing.

But chunky heavy riffage is what these guys do best, and the last couple of tunes illustrate this well.  "New Home" covers the chunky really well, whilst "The Walking Dead" gives us the riffs by the bucket load.

This could have been a good, but generic Metal album is elevated by quality playing, great vocals and variety.  Also the production is top notch and give the band's sound a proper Metal mix, but this is not surprising with them working with Andy LaRoque again on this album, as with their other 3, so the guy should no how to mix them by now.