Never really expected getting knocked out by such a tremendous power surge coming from the southern lands of the central European Hungary. As part of my YouTube explorations, yeah these happen from time to time, I found this trio of Metallers named VOLUMEFEEDER and their debut album's lead single, "Soul Eater". Traditionalist as I may be in my Metal, I learned quickly that it is best to keep an ear open, it sure helped me getting the hang of nowadays Metal scene better and to find several gems along the way. The trio Hungarian maniacs of VOLUMEFEEDER attracted my attention and I was set on reviewing their debut, "The Element Of Fire". Gergő Drahota, the band's bass player, made sure that I got to get to know their new album up close.

Showered by a monumental rain of American oriented Southern Metal al'a BLACK LABEL SOCIETY / DOWN (minus the arousing soloing), deeply infested by massive groove infections in the image of HELLYEAH, added by 90s driven Thrash / Groove Metal pieces in the verge of METALLICA / MACHINE HEAD, "The Element Of Fire" is a forge of quite an interesting form of twists and turns. Like any band out there, searching of its sound and personality, VOLUMEFEEDER rummaged through and through until they were locked in on the kind of uppercut they were about to strike. Trust me guys, the bludgeoning fist crossing your faces will be quite heavy and your neck would need a little rest.

VOLUMEFEEDER proved with "The Element Of Fire" that they found maturity in their material, contributed by load some of anger and dismay. I agree that they didn't come up with any new form of innovations music wise, yet the guys showed creativity in connecting intoxicating groovy, and outstandingly heavy, riffs together to form a strong basis to a well-executed songwriting. A kind of compositions that would make you wonder, come back to once again without being regarded as commercialized. I guess that I wished for a more melodic touch to the riffs mainly, as the singing was diverse enough to show both sides of the table, though for a reason the straight up riffs felt natural enough to subdue the mentioned need.

As a bonus, and I am more than positive that you would agree, "The Element Of Fire" is armed with an over the top wall of sound, which is a big time guaranteed rapture. Thanks to the band's producer and studio engineer, István Simon, VOLUMEFEEDER achieved a well-deserved sound quality to a powerful record.

After I tuned in to the entire release, "Soul Eater" remained by top choice to lead the album's greatness, it greatly displays both the band's groovy abilities along and lyrical concept. Also joining in are the deadly "Death Dance", "Castigated", "Failure Ride", "Hope Dies Last", "Wolves & Sheep" and the screaming fury bursting out of the horrific "Phobocracy".

I will keep my summary short this time. I need more stuff from these guys, plain and simply.