CORAL THE MERKNIGHT VS. SEARANTULA – It Weaves A Web Of Metal

  • 4/10
    CORAL THE MERKNIGHT VS. SEARANTULA - It Weaves A Web Of Metal - 4/10
4/10

Summary

Independent
Release date: October 20, 2017

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5/10 (1 vote)

This solo project by the artist known as Coral the Merknight, featuring numerous guest appearances by Darkest Hour’s Travis Orbin and Ghost Ship Octavius’ Adōn Fanion, while seeming to be lacking a clear sense of direction and purpose, manages to delivery an impressive array of Progressive Metal elements well blended with an unapologetically metal attitude and sensibility.

It Weaves a Web of Metal spins it’s ways through a variety of approaches ranging from parody style material in the vein of Steel Panther, Lords of the Trident or GWAR, to more straight-faced tracks that are not too far removed from the more accessible Prog Metal bands like Withem or Between The Buried and Me. Certainly, fans of the Progressive Metal genre will gravitate towards this release somewhat easily.

“Tragedy” is a singular track which could easily represent the album as a whole. With a running time of six minutes, it mixes both the more serious Progressive Metal instrumentation with a lyrical delivery that bounces from a goofy, spoken word style to a nicely sung Modern Metal approach. This highlights what it perhaps the main weakness of this release: its lack of consistency and direction. Just when you are ready to laugh at or with them, the songs shift and seem to expect to be taken seriously. These unpredictable changes keep the audience guessing, perhaps not in a good way. When you compare this to a release from a band like Steel Panther, which just focuses on light-hearted, party material 100% of the time, it becomes clear why parody acts can be so difficult to execute successfully.

Author

  • Maxxxwell Carlisle

    Maxxxwell was a reviewer and the host of The Maxed Out Metal Hour here on Metal Express Radio. He is the current lead guitarist for LA based metal veterans Hellion. In addition to his ongoing role in Hellion, he has also released 5 albums as a solo artist and appeared as a guest writer and soloist on Michael Angelo Batio's Intermezzo album, named one of the Top 5 shred albums of 2014 by Guitar World Magazine. He continues to collaborate with various Metal musicians and teaches guitar technique and Metal composition via Skype. Additionally, he is a former competitive bodybuilder and enjoys a lifestyle based around health, fitness and Metal.

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