Cage is a band from San Diego, which is lately gaining the European audience of the Power/speed metal genre, but with their latest release “ Science Of Annihilation” they are kind of trying to turn their sound to a more thrashy direction, with a not so  succesful outcome.

The impression I got from this album is controversial, regarding the kind of audience they are trying to approach. On the one hand we have to do with very gifted musicians with many technical abilities and some good ideas, but the final result comes out as really tiresome. The ensemble of the compositions is extremely fast, dull and “sharp”, and in combination with the extremely high pitched vocals, they make you at times wishing for it all to stop.

It is not that I have something against this type of metal, but I do have against monotony, since the spice of a succesfull composition is by all means the existence of nice melodies, inspired riffs and exchanging tunes, so as to retain interest in a song, and not an endless race in persuit of the highest possible speed for the benefit of easy impact. The guitar work of Dave Garcia and Anthony Wayne McGinnis is nevertheless very remarkable, but it would really be more effective on songs with better structure, and not in these endless up-tempo and speed persuit. I don’t believe in the motto “Speed for the sake of speed”, as an incredient of a good heavy metal album and I believe so do most of the people. There were times I was wondering if parts were played in fast forward, and this does not make an appealing album.

Best songs of the album are:  “Scarlet Witch” (at last, a structured and normal chorus), “Black River Falls” (with some King Diamond references), “Stranger In Black” and “Specter Of War” (the most melodic and mid tempo track of the album, where we can finally hear Sean Reck’ s normal voice without the continuous screams of the rest of the songs).

If you have been looking for a band sounding like a faster, harder and more extreme veresion of Agent Steel, with parts that would even remind you of Dragonforce (?!!!), then Cage is your thing, otherwise you should just go ahead.

In order to have a taste yourself, you can check the band’s official my space at the following link: www.myspace.com/cageheavymetal .