Black Tide - Shockwave

 

In the age of multi splintered genres, power metal, doom metal and pirate metal it's always good to find a band like Black Tide who deal in straightforward metal. Coming in somewhere between old school bands like ‘Maiden and the upstarts of today, Trivium, Black tide have a solid and distinctive sound.

Shockwave, taken from their new album Light From Above is a great example of their heavy, old school style metal which avoids the often ridiculous falsettos of power metal. Lyrically Black Tide ape the sleaze rock of Avenged Sevenfold and Shockwave itself seems to reference the hard drug scene (I'm a shockwave and I'll take your f***ing life! Don't mess with me I'm a shockwave ready to kill!). Sadly this is tried and tested territory from the days of early Metallica, done far better on tracks like Master of Puppets.

What stands out about Black Tide is their age. The band gained notoriety in the USA when they were upgraded to the main stage of Ozfest having been declared too young to play on the side stages. Coming in at an average age of 19 its odd to hear such an 80’s orientated sound from a band in what is becoming a progressively more Emo fuelled music scene.

Black Tide are a curious lot. It's interesting to hear the return of old school thrash metal to modern rock but at the same time the genre has been done so many times before you'd be forgiven for wondering "What's the point?". Is it a good thing Black Tide have gone back to the roots of metal? They're a lot more real and entertaining than some of the more recent metal acts, but  for all it's machine gun guitars and classic references Shockwave is merely ok. There is little outstanding or impressive about it, but it should entertain a rock fan for a few minutes or so.

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