Review: Mutiny Within – Mutiny Within (2010)

The debut of the much anticipated Roadrunner self titled release from New York’s Mutiny Within is upon us. Mutiny Within is set to hit stores tomorrow and marks the most “metal” album Roadrunner has released in what feels like ages (contrary to the speculation swirling around that Roadrunner was steering away from metal releases), however, will this album live up to the hype and usher in a new era for American metal?

Mutiny Within is sure to whip Americans into a frenzy as the next “in”  sound based on their aggressive melodies, but really, this album is absolutely nothing spectacular in any way. It’s a mixture of Mercenary’s and Raintime’s power/death fusion, Bullet For My Valentine’s glossy melodic death attempts and All That Remains’ over the top melodies with a side helping of death metal. Mutiny Within is essentially a Euro melody version of American new wave melodic death metal, and while it is refreshing to hear a new take on an old sound, it’s still the same old tricks with a new face.

With that said, despite not wholly impressing based on the hype it has received in terms of their originality and songwriting abilities, the band’s talent is a completely different story. Mutiny Within is comprised of some very effective musicians mainly for their ability to meld virtuosity VERY well with the traditional metalcore riffs that have permeated our country for so long (not to mention that Chris Clancy really is a legitimate singer). This virtuosity is what will ultimately lead to Mutiny Within’s unbridled success in this country, but also what I suspect might be a shunning from European fans for their attempt to do something that they perfected during an age when Americans were proudly listening to Limp Bizkit and Drowning Pool. Now, I don’t want to sound bitter about Mutiny Within’s imminent success upon the release of their debut record, because it really is good and worth picking up, I just hope that their success leads to an outbreak of more traditional, virtuosic forms of metal in America (i.e. power metal) because North America sorely needs more variety in this area.

We as Americans have already regained our appreciation of thrash metal, we are on our way to regaining an understanding of our traditional NWOBHM roots, so now its time to shun the disrespect so many of us have for things that are truly melodic in nature. I really do commend Mutiny Within for their efforts and the talent that they so obviously play with, but I think their debut could have contained so much more.

GOOD

Similar Artists: Mercenary, Raintime, Bullet For My Valentine, All That Remains

1.    Awake
2.    Images
3.    Falling Forever
4.    Year of Affliction
5.    Forsaken
6.    Lethean
7.    Oblivion
8.    Undone
9.    Hours
10.    Suffocate
11.    Reflections

Chris Clancy – Vocals
Brandon Jacobs – Guitar
Dan Bage – Guitar
Andrew Jacobs – Bass, Vocals
Bill Fore – Drums
Andrew Stavola – Keyboards

Roadrunner Records

http://www.myspace.com/mutinywithin

Review by CODY