The Undercurrent (CD - 2007)

Personnel: Pierrick Valence, Lawrence Mackrory (vocals); Dirk Verbeuren (drums).

Recording information: Blueflame Production, Uppsala, Sweden; Hell's Kitchen Studios, Nancy, France.

The Undercurrent is a thunderous and futuristic set of heavy metal from the (decidedly un-scarily named) French band Scarve, who have been described as "new age" heavy metalists. Despite that description, there is a lot here that is typical of the dark metal genre: growling vocals, martial drum batteries, and storm clouds of guitar. The dark cacophony of "Endangered" is straight-ahead modern death metal, but "The Plundered," with its high-speed expanding and contracting rhythms and wheeling guitar dynamics, hints at something more exciting (and perhaps puts the "new age" into the band's new age metal). Overall, this is a strong collection of versatile metal, and particular attention should be paid to the precise and bombastic drum attack of Dirk Verbeuren, one of the standout drummers in the European metal scene. ~ Erik Hage minimize