Arise

Boston, Massachusetts' Omega Reign has been around since 1988 but 2013's Arise marks their first official release. The band plays Traditional Heavy Metal that is on the crunchier side and frequently strays over the line into Thrash Metal territory. The slower, moodier pieces, like "Bitter" and "Prison in Your Eyes," have a brooding quality similar to Rage for Order-era Queensryche. When Omega Reign speeds up and lets guitarists Gene Felix and David Bowman flex their fingers, they evoke the melodic yet thrashy sounds of Powermad. The vocals of Hank Perry are decent, when he sticks to his mid-range, but many of the songs call for high-pitched screams and he never quite makes it, mostly coming up flat. The songs aren't particularly memorable but there is a lot of energy in the band's performances.

Arise is not bad but it isn't great, either. Omega Reign have some hurdles to overcome and didn't really bring all their strengths together in any one song. There's potential but only time will tell if they will be able to realize it.