Stay Alive

Triton Devs

TRITON DEVS is a Symphonic Power Metal band based in Montreal, QC. "Stay Alive" is […]
By Alex Barnard
September 13, 2021
Triton Devs - Stay Alive album cover

TRITON DEVS is a Symphonic Power Metal band based in Montreal, QC. "Stay Alive" is the group's debut album, released by Rockshots Records on June 18, 2021.

First of all, who mixed this thing? I've heard poor mixes before, a lot of them of my own songs that I mixed myself, but I've never heard anything this bad. Blacky Lee Stone's guitar tone could go down as the worst ever recorded in the history of the genre. It's muddy in the low-end and barely audible in the top end. It's almost like the jackass who claimed they were an engineer took an equalizer and rolled off all of the frequencies above 5000 Hz! Additionally, the bass is practically nonexistent, Eric Castiglia's vocals are, in certain sections, either too present or not at all ("The Light of Your Skin"), the keyboards drown everything else out ("Another Round"), and you wouldn't know there were two drummers because the drums sound so lifeless it would take a shot of adrenaline to revive them! What a sour note in the discography of such an accomplished drummer as Mike Terrana, who has graced the albums of incredible musicians like Yngwie Malmsteen and Tony MacAlpine.

It occurred to me that TRITON DEVS reached a new form of extreme, making the European kind of Power to become rather cheesy and boring musically. Clichéd Neoclassical melodies up the friggin' wazoo? Yep. Vocals that are so high in pitch you wonder if the singer is squeezing his balls to get those notes? Absolutely. But wait - funk interludes?!? Euro-trance sections?!? All in the same song ("This Summer Day")?!? Unfortunately, yes. I'll give TRITON DEVS at least a little credit - they're not as predictable as most European-styled Power Metal bands are.

Two good notes about this album: 1. Blacky Lee Stone is a phenomenal guitar player. His riffs are mediocre, but when he solos - damn can that dude shred! The best example of his guitar playing is on the instrumental track "Summer Day." (side note - seriously? Two songs with the words "summer" and "day" in the title?) The band's press release says that this album is "for fans of HELLOWEEN, DREAM THEATER, and Joe Satriani." You can really hear the Joe Satriani influences in Stone's lead playing on this song in particular, but in a really good way. 2. The song "Higher" features some really dope death growls. I don't know if that was Castiglia doing them or if there were guest vocals on that track, but bravo either way! It was a good touch to the song.

Despite these two good notes, overall the album is unlistenable. Seriously, the mix is so bad that I had to check with a different pair of headphones because I thought my main headphones were broken! My advice to TRITON DEVS ­- if you have any hope of succeeding as a band, either get better at mixing the albums yourself or spend a little more money on a better producer.

3 / 10

Hopeless

Songwriting

3

Musicianship

6

Memorability

2

Production

2
When clicked, this video is loaded from YouTube servers. See our privacy policy for details.
"Stay Alive" Track-listing:

1. Black Angel
2. Another Round
3. This Summer Day
4. The Light of Your Skin
5. The Show
6. Summer Day
7. Higher
8. Hell's Fest
9. Magic Rainbow
10. Metallus

Triton Devs Lineup:

Eric Castiglia - Vocals
Blacky Lee Stone - Guitars
Anna Portalupi - Bass
Mike Terrana - Drums
Zammkenoby - Drums

linkcrossmenucross-circle linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram