FROM TRAGEDY

Southern Cross's third album presents a strong blend of a variety of metal genres, making it a progressive releases that would most likely be appreciated by a variety of metal fans. The things that caught my attention were strong and defined musical themes, solid production, and a mix that I enjoy. In other words, keyboards are mixed loud, right on par with the guitars, enough to keep the guitars heavy but not put the keyboards in the background, which makes a strong ambient/symphonic sound. The drums are punchy, which I love, and even the bass guitar is very audible, which is rare in metal. Don't be expecting something that sounds like Symphony X or Dream Theater. Southern Cross actually seems to mix a number of modern sounds, including vocals which seem to skirt across several extreme genres, including death metal, black metal, scream, and deathcore. Not my cup of tea as far as the 'core' vocals go, but the clean vocals are decent. Very modern, not operatic or pretentious in any way, but they don't sound like he's a little weenie 'scenester' kid either. Overall, From Tragedy could be described as catchy and melodic with some great riffing. While this album didn't really catch my attention strongly, I'd imagine that some people would get their socks knocked off.