The thing about Before the Dawn is that what they do is craftsmanship of the best quality.

It’s not innovative as such, it’s just really good, solid heavy metal music.

Clean and brutal voices are balanced perfectly and you have brutality and beauty in equal measures in the music. The sound doesn’t get much better on a metal album, the whole thing is fine-tuned.

I’m not saying it’s machine music, because it isn’t. It’s done by real people and it works like a charm live (as you might recall from our Wacken review where the Finns took me by surprise by offering one of the most convincing gigs at Wacken this year – although seen by way too few people).

If you’re looking for a mixture of death, thrash, doom and heavy metal with a great production and cool, solid tunes, this is where you want to look!