This band from Germany returns with the successor to the debut Nightly Ray that saw the light of the day in the middle of 2005. This album was quite good (at least for a debut release) with nice Heavy Metal songs that were flirting with the Power Metal scene. Many good ideas and plenty of melodic touches raised some expectations along with the surprise cover on FALCO's Rock Me Amadeus.
While EMERGENCY GATE are already packing their bags for the European tour with KREATOR, CALIBAN and ELUVEITIE, METAL TEMPLE is responsible to shed some light on the band's second album. Actually, this lineup features Matthias Kupka behind the microphone who is also known from his SUIDAKRA days and the Command To Charge album from 2005.
So, what will happen to your ears when the 'play' button is pushed on the player with the Rewake CD in? Well, the opening scream saying Are you ready? was kind of misleading since it woke some Metalcore impressions making frown a little bit. Fortunately, the IN FLAMES keyboard groove and the distinct Melodic Death Metal guitar harmonies turned my head around and made me raise the volume a little more. I was totally surprised by the guitar work here; very good solos among the solid rhythms and the catchy vocal lines. Slave is a very good headbanger based on a staccato guitar riff that leads you towards some clean vocals and an almost SOILWORK chorus. The vocals are another surprise revealing die-hard influences from Taneli Jarva (ex-SENTENCED, THE BLACK LEAGUE) and EVERGREY's Tom Englund in the piano based Remains. The Metalcore elements are everywhere but hold a safe distance mainly due to the presence of very good guitar solos and melodic breaks that make the entire album most interesting.
This album sounds more aggressive than the previous one while keeping intact the melodic backbone introduce in Nightly Ray although the new singer brought a brand new atmosphere on the band's music signature. Matthias takes fully advantage of his multi-personality vocals traveling from high pitched Black Metal screams to the clean slightly melodic Metalcore patterns touching many known throats in every genre. So, based on his performance EMERGENCY GATE sound more flexible keeping a neutral attitude from all their influences and almost succeeding in creating a personal sound.
The clean guitar instrumental Unbeing is the perfect melodic break that introduces the SENTENCED meets IN FLAMES mid tempo song Gold & Glass with the hearty drum kick. Trust In Me is another guitar based killer with straightforward structure and an addictive maing groove that reminded me of the latest PERZONAL WAR album and the Hetfield sounding vocals. The twin guitar harmonies in Life v2.0 kick in besides the distinct keyboard sounds and close the album along with another clean guitar and emotional Lullaby. It is more than clear that the latest addition in the band's lineup took the music into another level giving the chance for a publicity breakthrough. If you enjoy the latest albums for most of the new bands and Melodic Death Metal is your cup of tea then the new EMERGENCY GATE album will find a nice place in your album collection.