After their debut with the EP "Origins" and the album "Dreamcatchers," the Dutch band THE ROYAL presents their second work entitled "Seven" with an impeccable production and mixing. Gunnar Van Eck (Guitar), Dick Van De Kamp (Guitar), Loet Brinkmans (Bass), Tom Van (Drums) and Semuel Pisarahu (Vocals) once again play well-crafted songs within the MetalCore genre counting with no clean vocals. The album itself brings a pretty groovy rhythm, and very melodic tracks exploring the technique and skill of the musicians. A negative point here is that the tracks do not differ much one of other, often having the same construction and following the same pace, making the experience as a whole a bit tiresome and repetitive.

"Thunder" is the track that starts the album, and it begins with the riffs similar to the noise of a locomotive in its tracks. Basically here we can already define the whole course concerning to the musicality of this work, with a solid base guitar, constant use of the lead guitar, a good harmony between all the members, few solos besides the great angry vocals of Semuel. "Feeding Wolfs" is a song that starts a little more Cadenced and it gains weight and speed during its progression, has some tempo changes besides a really exciting chorus. "Wildmind" take a little step aside from the usual constructions in addition to some short intervals for vocals in a very nice way, plus some traces of Trash Metal. "Creeds And Vutures" has in it highlight, the introduction of acoustic guitar and claps in the middle of the song, bringing a very pleasant and immersive feeling from that point on. A beautiful introduction to the track that gives its name to the album is made by "Interlude" preceding "Seven" that concentrates a lot of anger and aggression. From now on there is more of the same on "Life Breaker", "Thassala" and "Draining Veins".

"Virigian", the track that closes the album brings again inspirations from the Trash Metal and a very brutal sonority becoming the best track of the album in my vision, even though in some moments it still repeats some riffs that have already been exhausted, it brings a greater creativity and count with a good presence of a nice solo . Maybe if THE ROYAL had done a bit shorter work by leaving two or three tracks aside, or even betting more on diversification between the tracks I believe they would have been more successful. In spite of that, the album brings a very pleasant hearing and is recommended for lovers of the genre.Overall: 7