“The range on this album is truly impressive, drawing much of its sound from indie and electronic music while maintaining the brutality and raw spirit of metal.”
Few modern bands are ambitious enough to blend metal with elements of indie and electronic music, but Porcelain Shards certainly set themselves apart with their hybrid metal debut, Perfect Storm.
Martin Schwarz, who wrote the music and lyrics and handled the vocals, was influenced by the likes of Edguy, Avantasia, Type O Negative, In Flames and many others during the album’s conception. The idea behind the album is the band’s take on the classic story of a rock musician reaching the top, exploring newfound fame and falling into drug use, which then leads to a dark path of dissociation and numbness.
The range on this album is truly impressive, drawing much of its sound from indie and electronic music while maintaining the brutality and raw spirit of metal. This is especially clear in the melodic piece “Claws and Talons”. “Sunlit Charms” is an exciting rock intermezzo, while “Deirdre’s Dance”, the album’s take on electronic music, is an energetic yet hard-hitting piece.
Tracks like “Tony and The Starship”, “False Colours” and “The Perfect Storm” are a bit more brooding and edgy, while “Fields of Eternity” fully leans into the gloomy heaviness of metal. The final song, “Hour of the Wolf”, is a powerful metal coup de grace to the record. The album’s exploration of different melodic terrains is skilful and exciting, with Schwarz’s vocal performance balancing it all out.
Perfect Storm is an enterprising debut, and a tasteful reminder to metal artists to expand their horizons and not be afraid to explore and experiment with other genres.
