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Italian New Metallers ‘Six Days Of May’ release their stunning debut album, ‘Lymph’. Hailing from Milan, this five-piece band have been touring around northern Italy and making a name for themselves with their unheard fusion of all things metal.
As a debut album I sensed a huge progression from their previous release, ‘Genie In A Bottle’. The album had much more attack and presence along with a much more mature writing style, which was really good to hear. This new album is a credit to the band and hopefully will aid the success that they truly deserve.
The first track on the album, ‘Take A Look At The Ocean’ is a great opening track. A powerful lead riff along with a great combination of both clean vocals and growls works perfectly and sets the mood for the rest of the album. One of the most core based songs on the album with sections reminding me of some old school Killswitch Engage riffs. Never a bad thing!
‘Walk Of Failure’, the second track on the album, is very similar to the first track in terms of its writing style but still has a lot to shout about. A massive opening riff that sounded like something that could have been written by Adam D himself. The vocals during this track were simply perfect. In ‘Take A Look At The Ocean’ they reminded me of British metal giants ‘Bury Tomorrow’, but in this track all I could hear was the resemblance to Spencer Sotelo, the vocalist for Periphery. With soaring cleans and powerful growls, the track was seemingly classic and felt very easy to listen to.
Next up is the track ‘Spring Break’. This track takes a different path from the previous two tracks with the addition of synth. The use of synth works really well in this song with the guitars being used in a much more rhythmic fashion. It is difficult to pin a style of this track as it features so many different styles but in comparison to the earlier tracks, it is much more progressive and tech based.
One of my favorite tracks from the album is ‘Chasing Monsters’. This track reminds me a lot of the recent Bring Me The Horizon album, ‘Sempiternal’. The song brings a new level of technicality that is not seen earlier in the album through the use of ‘djent’ style riffs and programmed synth parts. This track has a lot of presence and I imagine this would sound great live! A track that truly stands out from the album and would not seem out of place amongst the higher end of the metal charts.
‘Get Your Fucking Hands off Me’, is another track on this album that blew me away with strong links with UK bands Enter Shikari and Astroid Boys. This track really juxtaposes amongst the other songs on the album. The use of dubstep style synth works well to set a new tone aside from the riff-based tracks that are at the start of the album. With the vocals and instrumental parts working together, this track is a level above the rest of the tracks on the album and really highlights the true musicianship that this band holds.
After the tech-based songs in the middle section of the album, we return to a much more core based set of songs to see the album through. ‘All You Can Hate’ is a classic metal core style track and features a strong resemblance to Swedish Metallers, In Flames. The song kicks in with a strong riff that is complemented by the drums. We are then thrown into a classic major chorus section that vocally is magnificent through the use of cleans harmonies. This song is very easy to listen too. It sounds polished and professional and I felt like I knew it already. To give the song a bit of their own personality the track features a middle section that is very representative of the earlier melodic tracks on the album. This then seamlessly merges into a final chorus section. A track that is already seems like a classic.
The next track, ‘Bullet as a Pledge’, really homes in on Giulio Longfils talents as a drummer. The opening section features a massive drum section that screams power and presence along with a well-composed mix of technical guitar and vocals. The song is really well composed as never seems to stay on one section for too long. It is constantly changing between layers of guitar or layers of vocals, which makes this song enjoyable from start to finish. The chorus section being one of my personal favorite sections from the whole album with the use of a guitar tapping riff and flawless clean vocals. A combination that is not attempted much in this style anymore
‘Naked Lies’, the second to last song on the album, is proper metal core, head banging song. The impact from the verse section automatically sends your head into bobbing mode and soon you find yourself unable to stop. A great song that will be appreciated by the majority of the metal community. Its features everything you could ever want from a metal song. Growls, cleans, riffs, synth and a solo! What more could you want. This song covers it all in one song and even has a solo that was not a feature throughout the rest of the album but after the solo in ‘Naked Lies’ I think it is a feature that should be apparent in their future releases. This was a great way to draw the album to a close before the last track.
‘Stubborn’ is the last track on this album, and it is nothing short of perfect. This track has such a massive sound that it feels like I should be going out to see these guys headlining festivals. It sums up the album perfectly by using all the best features that we see throughout the album. This final track really brings out the core aspect of their writing as well as their combination of tech based guitar sections and synth backing to make a formidable ending to an all-round great album, one that definitely deserves a listen.
SIX DAYS OF MAY are:
Giacomo Cherubini – Vocals Marco Grimaldi – Guitar Rashid Mahdavi – Guitar Federico Zanetti – Bass Giulio Longfils – Drums
Review by Siôn Roe
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