Stigma

When Midnight Strikes

Pivotal Rockordings 2008

From Italy comes one of the few bands to make a name for themselves in that land that for some reason does not contribute much to the extreme metal scene.  But that's another tangent.  What Stigma has on offer for us is a brand of Death/Metalcore heavy on influence from At the Gates.  They manage to incorporate some nice guitar melodies such as Silver Bullets and Burning Crosses.  The metalcore breakdowns and vocal approach really surfaces around the 45 second mark of To be Really Dead...That Must be Glorious.  Also towards the end of the song there is a really smoking guitar solo that gives way to some silly gang shouts lurking in the background.  Musically Beneath the Crown is more in the realm of In Flames and early Dark Tranquillity with its chunkier riffing and the sample from Army of Darkness is spot on.  Blood, Your Precious Blood starts off with a cheesy vocal intro and by this time the faceless quality of the music has started to set in.  Early on the freshness of this being a new album was enough to get me through but by now I am beginning to get a little bored.  The album closes out with a reworking of an earlier song, Epitaph of Pain.  This song stands out as more straightforward death though it is still strapped with melody.  Lyrically When Midnight Strikes revolves around vampiric themes of the Hollywood movie variety.  Offering nothing too original or refreshing this album does little for me.  It is professional and I am sure it'll appeal to people obsessed with the genre.  Like I said, there are some nice melody lines sprinkled throughout the album but not enough to make up for the fact that there are a million other bands doing this right now, many of which are better.