Greece's DIARY OF SECRETS have recently released their debut self-titled album, and are bringing their brand of traditional styled Metal to the forefront, with much heavier riffage than you may well be expecting from such a band. The band has certainly put their own twist on that classic sound with this album.

Opening up with a short instrumental "Chapter 1", which opens up with great sounding guitar lines that along with an organ sound build up to the first actual song "Stone Heart Bleeding" which opens with an almost grungy effected guitar before giving way to heavy riffs and a dark sounding lead vocals. Melodic lead lines soon take over before the first verse gives us a proper listen to the vocals, which are quite throaty sounding whilst still holding a tune. It really works well with the heavy sound of the band and definitely suits what they seem to be going for, as is also shown in the tracks "Thy Devilish Guardian", which also involves some real killer Metal riffs, and "Another Age Is Yet To Come". The vocals and lead guitars work really well together, giving each other space when necessary and never trying to outdo each other, which in a new band is fairly rare.

The album has it's more tender moments too, as shown in the instrumental track "The Archangel", which makes an appearance halfway through. It opens up with delicate pianos overlaid with lead guitar harmonies before a clean guitar section sets up the meat of the track itself. This is a really cool track that shows off the whole band very nicely, with lots of different parts as any good instrumental should have, and a slightly progressive edge too. For the most part, this is a band that definitely has an established sound within itself, with a lot of style that the band has really made its own, from more technical riffs to old school moshing riffs that really complement each other and blend together really well, and I felt this was epitomised in the song "J&H".

The album closes with "You Can't Hide" which doesn't let up with the heaviness, with a really deep sound to it and some great playing involved, this is a great way to close things off, with some cleaner verses melding well with heavier riffage later on.

Overall, this is a very good first effort from DIARY OF SECRETS, and though the production isn't the best in the world, it isn't bad either, and the playing shines through especially well, with clean guitars and drum sounds in particularly having been recorded and produced really well; a very solid release, and hopefully the start of a bright future for the band.