Hailing from Luxembourg, ABSTRACT RAPTURE are a band that combine many different styles to their sound.  I actually forgot about them, having initially discovered them with their debut album, "Democadencia," back in 2008.  I was surprised to learned they are still a band when this promo came to me and even more surprised they released a second full length in 2011 called "Earthcrush."  I haven't heard that album, of course, so I have no basis to compare how they have grown since then.

However, although it didn't blow me away, I found their debut to be solid.  So how does their new album, "Hollow Motion," make me feel?  Not as good, I must say.   It is solid but, again, I don't find it to be amazing.  The band is obviously very talented but I think they are trying too hard to fit in so many styles and sounds.  The whole album just comes off as disjointed and clunky instead of a great album with dynamics. I found one of the biggest issues is with Drittt's vocals.  He has a nice singing voice but it is one that can only be handled in small doses.  He uses them quite often on this release but they just aren't strong enough to be used for prolonged verses.  However, this death growls/screams are well done and if he had more of a balance between the two, I could enjoy his performance a lot more.

Musically, the band is helter-skelter in how they want to portray themselves.  Are they a Thrash Metal band?  Melodic Death Metal?  Nu-Metal? Hard Rock?  The first track, "A Promise From The Ghouls," is a combination of nu-metal guitar tones but riffs that have the shape and feel of some 90's groove oriented metal. I just didn't find that these two styles melded so well together and when the clean vocal chorus presented itself, the music turned into bland radio hard rock. The second song, "The Cancer In Your Soul," is a much better affair and would have made a much better opening as it just grabbed me quicker.  The riffs are faster with a bit more energy to them and the verses feature an awesome vocal performance from Drittt.  The song as a whole just seems a bit more focused; the band definitely found their rhythm here but they just don't recapture it enough to hold my interests.

Later in the album, in one of the deep tracks no less, the band finds that sweet spot again with "Inner Plague," which is mostly unclean vocals and a steady stream of modern heavy metal.  Again, when the band isn't trying to battle with how they want to sound, they are very solid and entertaining.  Guitarists Alex and Nol have more than enough talent to really bring out some thrash and groove, I just wish they did so more often. But the album dips in quality as soon as it finds itself up again with the title track "Hollow Soul," which is extremely uninteresting and bland.  If I had heard this song first, I would had never given this band a chance.  However, if I had heard "Inner Plague," first then they definitely would had peaked my interest.  The band just wears too many faces for my tastes.  If this was the late 90's early 2000's during my high school years, I would probably be all over this. But now that I'm a 35 year old disgruntled adult, I just need more focus for my Metal.