Ice Upon the Night

In case you just haven’t had enough of the Gothenborg sound of melodic (sort of) death metal mixing with emo then hear you go. These Finnish kids (who should really know better considering the vast amount of good metal and hardcore that their country puts out) make some so-so metal & some typical & atrocious emo/mellow parts.
Yet, their label insists on comparing them to Dark Traquility & In Flames (ok, maybe the recent In Flames) but really they sound more like a mix of outtakes of Gandalf (the Finnish metal band, not the grey wizard) and maybe Avenged Sevenfold if they grew up listening to Yngwie and Helloween. Another sticking point is the druming is mixed pretty bad in a few places and the vocalist sounds uttery silly when he’s trying to be evil or intense.
(((1))) Pretty good, though silly & overdone melodic Swedish-styled “ready for MTV2 extreme metal”. Lots of that noodling/soloing that you’ve heard from In Flames/Darkane/Soilwork/Dark Tranquilty and Children Of Bodom. It’s decent for what it is.
((2)) Trad metal riffing into more squirrelly melodic almost power metal styled parts but more “evil dude who’s not all that evil” vocals. Sounds like a Gandalf (the band, not the wizard) outtake.
(3) This sounds not too different from the last track except it’s slower
and even more “radio friendly”. Is this the single & video that’ll be on the DVD “that drops next month”?
((4)) Some better riffing and sounding a little faster but what’s with that flat drum sound? Sounds like a sprinkler going off.
((5)) Decent but typical as fuck melodic Swedish-styled “extreme metal”. You can even tell when their going to play fast and when they doi they fall pretty flat & there’s some OK soloing but nothing you haven’t heard before.
((6)) Lots of 80’s styled scales. A very melodic approach in the verse but they mix it up a bit with a fast noodly tempo here & there. Still, it’s pretty much boring.
((7)) Here’s where they try to become Opeth or better yet Amorphis but they’re pretty much failing on the extreme vocal/melodic vocal switch off. Not quite as awful as say Avenger Sevenfold who attempt the similar “brutal yet melodic” but still...
(8) Growling is unnessary when you’re music is so damn happy sounding! Lots of video game sounding guitar acrobatics mixed with that Dark Tranquility & In Flames fast song parts. Redundant & melodic to the point of insanity!
(9) OK, now I’ve heard it all! 3rd wave Scandi-(sort of) death metal kids doing power ballads. OK, I know you’re trying for the Amorphis thing but there’s a reason why they can pull off and you can’t. Oh wait oh this is supposed to be the Opeth influence? I give up.