Hard Rock receives a much-needed kick up the North as Fallen Mafia drop their anthemic debut album, ‘Awaken’. Opener and title track ‘Awaken’ is a marching infantry of melodic rock which stomps across the Metal genres waving its flag and snarling behind smiling eyes. ‘Burn’ bursts into life with a roundabout riff, festival chorus and cracking vocals while ‘Don’t Look Back’ kicks off like a ballad before morphing into a motoring cut of mainstream Rock. The double-decker approach of crunch and chew works and the song rises to the formulaic challenge. An unhurried ‘Life’s A Dance’ threatens to burst into life before settling in the mid-set slowie section. ‘Breathe’ canters into the familiar modern-rock territory with a Dio twist prior to the demonic ‘Asylum’ thrashing against the walls of the tortured mind. There has to be a ballad, every rock album has at least one, and ‘How The Story Ends’ starts off staring longingly out of a rainy apartment window but one verse in the heat is turned up so the tepid turns to a simmer and if one cut off this impressive release could or should be done acoustically then it’s ‘HTSE’. An after-dark ‘Undead’ is followed by the booming bass of ‘Heads Up’ before the arms in the air closer ‘Nymph’ wraps up this majestic debut.
FALLEN MAFIA
‘AWAKEN’’
Chapter 22 Records
8/10
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