Kobra and the Lotus – Prevail II

[schema type=”review” name=”Kobra and the Lotus – Prevail II” description=”Label: Napalm Records” author=”Juho Karila” pubdate=”2018-04-27″ ]

Kobra and the Lotus, or KatL for short, is a Canadian Melodic Metal band, which fuses their music with some traditional Heavy/Hard Rock and low-tuned guitars for added dramatics. Hailing from Calgary, Canada, founded in 2009 and released their debut album Out of the Pit only a year later, they’re the tackling the metal scene with some fierce aggression and the voice of Kobra Paige, now with their 6th release in total: the second part for their 2017’s Prevail I.

The album gives us the best right off the bat: Losing my Humanity. It’s an intresting mixture of aggressive guitar riffs and progressive moments that are sure to make heads banging! Subtly shifting dynamics from the fierce verse into a more calm pre-chorus only to rise again for a rocking chorus and at the second verse I’m already ready to declare the song as one of the most significant metal songs of 2018. As the second chorus ends, tricking into thinking that this was a hands-down 2 minute beatdown it slows and almost halts for a breakdown, which is only a slight deviate from the intro riff but oh it sure kicks with its crookedness and tension-release hooks. Needless to say, hopes are high for the second track when the song ends to that great riff.
Second one is a more straightforward, Let Me Love You but the song doesn’t lose much in heaviness to the opening one. A surely simpler one but that doesn’t bother me as much as does the very pop chorus chant: “Let me love you.” It repeats over and over again to the point throughout the song it soon becomes irritating after a few listenings.
Ribe is a calmer one, an acoustic track with a very heavy and dark atmosphere, thanks to their low tuning. It leads us to My Immortal, which is more like pretty average mid-tempo sing-driven metal song. The heaviest of times seems to have passed. Unfortunately it’s one of the less memorable songs of the album. In both good and bad.
Then the cycle starts over with Human Empire, which I long thought as the best song of the album but eventually fell into the second place. It’s a real rocket ride much in the way of the opener but just a tad simpler. It’s not a bad thing because the symbiosis of the killer guitar riffs and Kobra’s voice really gives us something, and that something is pretty good.
Second worst song, another pop one is called Heartache. Despite it’s catchy and surprisingly cheerful melodic guitar lead intro, it’s once again going through where the fence is lower. The pop chorus just doesn’t work for the band, which lowers the overall score so much that I’ll more likely play the first of the double album than this.
Towards the end we get some more traditional Hard Rock in the form of Velvet Roses, and some traditional Heavy Metal with Modern Day Hero but these are only a nice change from all that speeding but sadly both songs are falling in the shadows of the more fierce ones.

And that sums the album pretty well, it’s overall solid good Heavy Metal from KatL with many good tracks and a few excellent ones but the couple misses really bothers me and makes me wonder if they’ve been a little too ambitious. It’s easy to forgive those mis-steps but pop isn’t their game. This is going to my shopping cart on my next visit to a record store and I’d recommend this for fans of fast and versatile metal, who aren’t afraid of some rough edges.

Line-up:
Kobra Paige – Vocals
Jasio Kulakowski – Guitars
Ronny Gutierrez – Guitars
Brad Kennedy – Bass
Marcus Lee – Drums

1. Losing My Humanity 2. Let Me Love You 3. Ribe 4. My Immortal 5. Human Empire 6. Heartache 7. Velvet Roses 8. Modern Day Hero 9. You’re Insane 10. White Water 11. The Chain 12. Let Me Love You (acoustic bonus track)

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