1. Chemistry
2. The Coming Past

3. Situational Awareness

4. Devil May Care

5. Off The Grid

6. Years Of Infinity

7. Home Sweet Hell

8. Mind Apart

9. Beast By Design

10.Untouched

Athera-  Vocals

Cyrus - Guitar

Elvorn-  Guitar

Memnock - Bass

Tjodalv-  Drums

release date Europe 19th April 

preview - review by Boris "Azrael" Witta ___               

Once more I remarked how important it is to listen carefully and at least 4 times to an album before you are able to write a good and competent review. First, I wasn’t very pleased with “Unlimited” but I began to like this album, the third one of the Norwegian band, from listening to listening.  

Susperia found their very own style of playing Metal, I would say their music could be called Melodic Death/ Thrash/Black Metal. On “Unlimited”, there are some shadows, but also a lot of highlights. Sometimes the change between the different styles doesn’t work, but most of the time the songs are electrifying and original, and with this album, Susperia will not only appeal Extreme Metal Fans, but also fans of bands such as In Flames or Soilwork.

Let’s first come to the positive things of “Unlimited”: Susperia are able to create a mixture between some really good, catchy and beautiful guitar melodies which remind of Melodic Death Metal, hard riffing, most of the time thrashy with some Bay Area influences, but also sometimes typical Black Metal. In some songs, Athera sounds like Chuck Billy from Testament. The beginning of Situational Awareness for example is pure Thrash, with pounding drums (I think everybody knows Tjodalv from his time with Dimmu Borgir), and uptempo riffs, before later on it turns into Melodic Black Metal with great lead guitars.

Generally, the guitars are the most important thing on “Unlimited”: there aren’t any keyboards, every melody is created on the 6 strings, which show a great variability. And because of that, songs like the opener Chemistry or Devil May Care (which starts Amorphis-like and which has the best chorus in the album) become something special, they spread a dark, hypnotic and melancholic atmosphere. 

As good as every song is fast forward, and also most of the songs have an engraving chorus which is responsible for the recognition of the song. But as I said, most of the songs, not all of them. Unfortunately, there are also some fillers. The Coming Past is the worst song on “Unlimited”: obtuse riffing and strange, disharmonic vocals which don’t fit at all. And also the last two songs, Beast By Design and Untouched are just okay, but not more. Another point of critic is, that sometimes Athera’s vocals are too much in the background, but most of the time, they harmonize perfectly with the respective song. 

Also the production couldn’t be better. The drums were recorded at Fredman’s Studio (that’s easy to hear), the guitars sound fat and in a positive way modern, and for bass-freaks like me it’s great to hear the 4 strings very clear all the time.

 So as a summary I can say that “Unlimited” is an album which needs to be discovered, with a lot of really good songs and also some fillers. But the highlights are much bigger than the shadows. But keep in mind: “Unlimited” is not easy to consume, but with every listening, you will find new details and you will understand more and more the songs.

Rating: 8/10  

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