### Children Of Madness: Howl from beyond

#### 26/09/13 || Ironpants

Children of Madness hail from Finland, and have, true to their name, in a state of madness sent their demo to GD for reviewing. I usually like Finnish bands, even if I don’t like their music every time, cause 90% of them have really good productions, even in the demo department, and they have an ability to shake out some pretty decent stuff. You can’t succeed all the time though, and some dudes have too make way for the others. Just like in a large scale war, some people become foot soldiers and are destined to be cannon fodder.

The production in this case is über-thin, but I guess they have spent the time in some local small studio, with a beginner to the trade as a knob-twister? It doesn’t really matter, it’s a demo, so the music should survive any setting… if it was good enough.

Lets start with what is OK, it will be quick… the guitars. I said it would be quick right?

And the rest. Let me be brutally honest here. You gotta trade in your singer, this dude doesn’t cut it, he has an “in-between” voice and sounds as if he don’t know if he should go high or low, or go take a dump, so he stays in the middle. If you have your sights set on traditional heavy metal, it is crucial that the singer can handle his stuff. For example, that Bruce Dickinson “Wo-o-o-o-o Wo-o-o-o-o” shit he tries to pull in “Phoenix rising”, sounds terrible.

And everything is somewhat sloppy performed, and if you don’t want to exchange all the members, at least let the drummer play after a click track (and make sure that the rest of the band follows him). It sounds from time to time that everybody is trying to find each other in the rhythm. I got fucking nervous listening to it.

If we sidestep these two major drawbacks and focus on the music, we are presented too a fairly traditional heavy metal setting (á la Iron Maiden) with hints of both power metal and also classic hard rock (á la Deep Purple). You guys should really try to focus on one style, preferably the Iron Maiden part, cause it’s there you get some good guitar riffing going, and also some decent solo-work. That Deep Purple-ish stuff you take to the stage in “Daughter of sunrise” is pretty cool, especially the lead-guitar, but it don’t fit with the other songs, so make up your mind.

Well, guys, you have some stuff to deal with as you can see, and I suggest you get to work if you wanna get some attention (other than mine, that is) and I wouldn’t be very surprised if I see another demo quite soon with just Toni and Timo (guitars) in another band constellation.

Check out the opening track here

Sad face… Care face.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Demo/Self financed
- Website: Children of Madness Facebook
- Band
- Esa-Ville Immonen: vocals
- Petteri Pyyny: bass
- Ville Tuovinen: keyboards
- Toni Heikkinen: lead/rythm guitar
- Timo Koskela: lead/rythm guitar
- Pentti Lamminpää: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Phoenix rising
- 02. Howl from beyond
- 03. Daughter of sunrise
- 04. World on fire