Se Bon Ki Ra from Adelaide and their shiny new album In The Wake Of Change is a punishing, but friendly, colorful yet brutal, 15 track giant, ready to keep you entertained for hours and hours. There are so many good things about this collection of thrash/groove metal songs it’s hard to know where to begin.
Chad Cosgrove’s vocals have all the tools going from deep but clear vocals to very melodic vocals, to harsh growls more befitting death metal. Excellent stuff. The guitars are blasted out with power and real weight of aggression, with some very fine riffage indeed, all sounding different and multilayered. On these guitars are Shane Squires and Mike Brown. Outstanding musicianship and the backbone of the disc.
Many riffs I had to hear again to keep the smile on my face a little longer. Ben Farrelly on bass and Sven Hentschel on drums provide the rhythm and pounding beats. This band really knows how to do this and has obviously worked very hard to make sure that is reflected in the recording.
When I saw the 15 tracks on the listing I was worried that they could sustain interest and a standard throughout that while length of time and apart from two quiet, take a breath short chill-out sessions they have done exactly that. There are obviously better songs than others but no dead spots on there with a variety of intros and tempos and aggression levels.
There are however four songs that just stand out that extra bit from the rest mainly in the level of intensity and with just a bit more firepower and perhaps the riffs and melodies are that bit more memorable than others. This Life I Create, Nailed Into Place, Caught In The Crossfire, and Breathe the Light will be the songs I long remember well after completing this CD’s rotation. Nailed Into Place and Caught in The Crossfire have some particularly heavy and brilliant sections. A great chance for you to raise those horns.
As an album, this really is the full package with the product first class and the music radiating polish.
Se Bon Ki Ra music is made with a positive message and all I can see are positives with this album. A truly brilliant album of which all metalheads are highly likely to enjoy.
Se Bon Ki Ra: Facebook
Release Year: 2013
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Chris Rankin
