KNIGHTS OF THE ABYSS 'Juggernaut' (Candlelight) RATING: 6/10

By RYAN MAVITY

On the opening track of Knights of the Abyss’s new album Juggernaut, the band is exactly that: rampaging marauder ready to pillage the landscape. It’s a huge and piledriving two-and-a-half minutes and it holds out great promise for the rest of the record.

Unfortunately, the band sets a lofty standard they never live up to. A great deal of the tracks, like “Karmageddon,” “Hell Bent” and “I Pledge Agrievance,” sound like a DevilDriver cover band. Nothing else seems as bold or creative as the opening title track. I suppose when you call your album Juggernaut it brings high expectations. There’s no doubt the band can shred. The guitar work here is definitely a plus. But too often, the music sounds like a million other bands of similar ilk. There’s nothing that separates Knights of the Abyss from the pack. It’s not for a lack of trying. Guitar solos, guttural vocals and relentless drumming fill the frame, but there’s nothing to make Juggernaut great.

Juggernaut is one of those albums that comes along, entertains for a half-hour and goes away. It’s not bad, it’s just that the opening led me to believe this was going to be a creative death metal album, complete with space travel references and unusual sound clips. Instead, the album is more just a solid death metal album that ends up bringing nothing to the table and taking nothing off. Maybe I’m being a little harsh on Juggernaut, but I was hoping for a little more after a promising start.