Album Reviews : Hemlock – No Time For Sorrow

If you thoroughly enjoy mid-paced, groove-laden riffs, modern thrash vocals with a hint of core and fast but plain guitar solos then this album is for you. If that’s not your cup of tea then don’t bother because Hemlock’s latest album offers little else.

“World of the Transparent” begins the album on a high note, with a very groovy but powerful slow riff, strong extended growls and a general style that seems to have an ever so slight hint of post-metal to it at times. After this track, the album dulls down to a much less interesting pile of simple riffs and uncreative writing. “Red Sky Revolution” has a punk tinge to it with its faster vocals and bass-heavy sections. “To Submerge Another” has some interesting clean vocals that sound like a below-average Ozzy. But overall, the songs are all based around the same simple formula. There is little variety in riffing here, other than pace changes, the drums just follow along with everything else, as does the bass, and the vocals are neither catchy nor very brutal.

I’m not saying that is album is really bad, it’s just simple. There are some catchy riffs here and there, and the growls are fairly decent. I can see this sounding better live because it has a very powerful sound for the most part, and the formulaic writing would be overtaken a bit by some serious head banging. But as an album, it just doesn’t offer anything interesting. Hemlock are playing it safe here.

Have a listen to one song off “No Time For Sorrow”, and if that’s what you enjoy then buy the album because you’ll like the rest of it too. For such uncreative writing, it’s well executed and has a solid sound. If it doesn’t stand out to you, move on.

As a side note, the album art is terribly done. The front cover isn’t bad, but the sleeve and rear cover is full of randomly placed, very low quality logos and amateur fonts. Not the best presentation. 5/10

Band: Hemlock
Album: No Time For Sorrow
Year: 2008
Genre: Metal
Label: Continental Entertainment
Origin: Las Vegas, US
http://www.myspace.com/hemlock

Track listing:
1. World of the Transparent <- reviewers choice
2. Red Sky Revolution
3. No Time For Sorrow
4. Bugs
5. Backstabber
6. What You Don’t Know
7. And The Friendship Corrodes
8. The Reason
9. To Submerge Another
10. Beautality
11. Product of Closure
12. Vultures and Ventriloquists