Motivik take the listener on a musical journey of sorts in their self-described melodic thrash debut Death of the Gunman.
Death of the Gunman certainly takes you on a musical journey. “Inception” starts off the album and brings mostly old-school thrash like you’d hear from bands like Tourniquet or Vengeance Rising, at least for the first three minutes of the song when it inexplicably turns into a melodic instrumental only the abruptly shift back into a thrash-heavy guitar solo sounding like something off Metallica’s Kill Em All. Throw in some vocals that sound like melodic ones from bands like Volbeat and I’m very confused after just one track.
“Away” starts out thrashy enough but vocals completely change everything and I presume this is Courtney Simmons taking over only to have the smoother vocals come in for the chorus section. This works very well as odd as it sounds when you read the description. There are definitely some interesting choices going on with the mix as well as the bass comes through prominently in some parts offsetting the guitar solo. Then things shift again with the string section opening “Lament” and the background sounds giving the feel of this song being something from an American Western. Really not sure how that fits musically but it does with the album cover and title….