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The cover shows a millipede on a white background... The name didn't ring a bell and so I had no idea what to expect. The first track is the title track Unknown. This is a melange of Nu metal and thrash metal, but there are more elements in the sound of the Norwegian. The quintet call their music hybrid-metal. Well.... The label bio say that they are inspired by bands like Pantera, Meshuggah, Deftones, Slayer, Machine Head, Slipknot and Faith No More. That gives a hint about their sound, coz you can find elements in their songs. For example Intenz has parts which remind me of Faith No More, but it's more like Machine Head / Pantera with some more modern metal influences. The vocals of Leo Moracchioli are rough and deep. Somewhere between hardcore and death metal growls. Finding Truth starts slowly, then explodes and the heavy, aggressive riffing is the main element of this song. On the other hand the song has a catchy chorus - clean vocals - and the change between clean vocals and growls make it even more interesting. Cool track! On Intenz are also clean vocals and some black metal-like screams. They also add here and there some - partly distored - clean vocals, spoken word parts. On Sixxth the vocals of Moracchioli build a bridge to Faith No More, coz partly he sounds kinda like Mike Patton, beside growls. But musically they are more in the vain of Machine Head... Not all tracks are fast, some are heavy mid-tempo ones with faster parts. They have a variety, but I think they should change more between the sound elements and so get a larger variety in the songs. But this is there debut and I think that sooner or later they will find the perfect mixture of their influences and hybrid-metal might be linked to their music in future.
A melange which probably is to unusual for some metal fans. You should be open-minded for new stuff. If you like it heavy and if you aren't afraid of modern sounds, then you should listen to Lowdown!
Lowdown recorded and produced their album in their hometown Stavanger. The album was mixed by Zet (Ram-Zet) who also added some vocals to the last track Struggling. The production is powerful and transport the energy of the band and songs.
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