Stilllife- Requiem

Stilllife is a four piece heavy metal band from Michigan. To sum up the music in layman's terms, this is music made perfect for headbanging. At times the band has a very old school sound but they almost always have something going on that keeps things fresh. The musical content here has a very heavy quality and in terms of instrumental work Stilllife manage to shine throughout the majority of this record. The album clocks in at around an hour and is very consistent for the most part with only a few slow moments peppered in the long playtime.

The guitar tone used here is very thick. When this beastly tone is mixed with the powerful riffs the band churns out the combination turns out quite deadly. In the riff department Stilllife clearly have solid ground to stand on. Most of the instrumental work on the album is excellent. The pace is always working at keeping things interesting and just when things seem to become dull everything gets switched up and restores your interest.

Getting to the vocals we reach what it is one of the biggest issues with the album. The vocals are simply to high in the mix. At times they overpower everything else and a good portion of the instrumental aspects of the album are lost in translation. This doesn't completely ruin the listening experience but without this problem the album would have been much easier to digest. Speaking of the vocal style used on Requiem, it is kind of a mixbag when it comes to quality. At times the style used is reminiscent of Dio and a few of the other greats but in certain sections it can begin to sound a tad uninspired.

Overall Requiem is an album that shows a large amount of potential. It is clear that there is talent within this band but unfortunately this isn't the best they can do. Hopefully with future releases Stilllife cut loose and release the amazing album that this could have been with a bit more soul poured into it. Fans of straight up heavy metal and power metal may get a kick out of this but it isn't something I would recommend everyone, but with that being said I will mention that you should keep an eye out for these guys because if the potential shown here is ever used to the fullest Stilllife will have one hell of an album on their hands. Until the next release we'll just have to wait and see what they do next.