Imperanon

A new band of very young — but in some cases highly trained — Finnish musicians, Imperanon have released a debut described as melodic death metal, but unqualified that’s a very misleading classification. The influence of groups like Children of Bodom is fairly obvious, but Imperanon seem to exude vibrant energy and have a few twists of their own to save themselves from being written off as clones. The playing on Stained is highly technical, often leaning towards Malmsteen-ish neo-classical shredding or even progressive metal more often than death, with a high-speed meshing of intricately balanced parts. The use of clean vocals on a couple of tracks seems a bit arbitrary, even jarring in the case of "Shadowsouls,” but they’re not poorly performed. Stained is highly melodic and not very evil, but Imperanon take you on one lively ride.