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How these guys have surprised us! THE SORROW from Austria's idyllic Voralberg region arrived on the scene almost exactly 18 months ago with their debut, Blessings From a Blackened Sky, steamrolling everything that stood in their way. A band that you'd expect to find in the UK, Sweden or the US, certainly not in the German-speaking territories, had entered the great heavy metal arena. With a strong first release that lived up to top international standards under their belt ("Album of the Month" in Metal Hammer), the musicians surrounding charismatic frontman Mätze took Europe's stages by storm, performing well over 150 gigs, playing the Wacken Open Air, Tuska, Nova Rock, Metal Camp and the Rock Hard festival, among others (the bonus CD of the limited edition includes songs from the Rock Hard open-air festival!). They visited Finland and France as well as Berlin, Bochum and Bregenz. Austria's most successful metal act shared stages with renowned acts such as Children Of Bodom, Devildriver, Heaven Shall Burn, Killswitch Engage and Chimaira.

THE SORROW have always convinced their audience in every respect, and it goes without saying that this attitude has catapulted the band into the premiere league of European metal acts in no time at all. The magazine, EMP, have been proved right in their prediction, commenting in summer 2007 that "the future definitely belongs to The Sorrow!" Backed by so much impetus, the band naturally put their shoulders to the wheel to follow their debut album with a real bang.

THE SORROW have surpassed themselves with Origin Of The Storm and are set to deliver an album that is a real highlight, their familiar brute and extremely refreshing manner of celebrating their contemporary metal sound having been perfected on their new album.

The raw parts get down to business with even more determination, the riffing is even more refined, the chorus even bigger and more anthemic than on their first album. At the same time, THE SORROW move in the tradition of contemporary metal acts such as Trivium, In Flames and Slipknot.

The metalcore passages, which were still strong on the debut, have moved into the background, although the band continue to include this facet in their sound while enjoying forays into all kinds of different metal segments. This should hush even the last sceptics who accused THE SORROW in their early days of sounding a little too much like Killswitch Engage, seeing that what we get to hear on Origin Of The Storm is much more diverse. The chorus of a real killer like the brutal Raising The Devil brings Judas Priest to mind rather than getting tied up in technically tangled sounds. The amazing density and power, the pure, unadulterated metal on Origin Of The Storm is an outstanding characteristic of the new THE SORROW album.

This veritable heavy metal steam hammer of an album was recorded and produced by Toni Meloni (Caliban, Tote Hosen, among others) at the Principal Studios near Münster, where THE SORROW had already cut their much-lauded debut.

All in all, THE SORROW definitely sound more mature. Tracks such as "Where Is The Sun?" come along in such a tight and harmonious style that you'd expect these guys to stem from Gothenburg in Sweden rather than Western Austria, an assumption which is underlined by the powerful, Amon Amarth-oriented "Collector Of Tears".

While the thrashy "Scars" captivates with its irresistible mix of grooves and harmonies, "Heaven Is No Place For Us" is likely to cause many a whiplash injury, helping itself with Cradle Of Filth-like screams and massive power riffing in true Pantera style to a broad range of tough contemporary sounds.

The Sorrow's lyrics on Origin Of The Storm reflect clearly more personal subjects than their debut did. They are about disappointment and anger, generated by people in their environment who caused the storm mentioned in the album title and threatened to throw them off course. But they also pay respect to those people who've stood by them in difficult times, like in the epic "Anchor In The Storm", which reveals a whole new and extremely heavy facet of The Sorrow.

Power, energy and anger in combination with well thought-out arrangements and breathtaking chorus parts – it seems the band have learned a lot in the past one and a half years and have summed up the essence of their musical work.

Conclusion: Origin Of The Storm is a real killer, even capping – as was to be expected – the debut release! Prepare yourselves for a storm that will reduce to rubble the stages of Europe's clubs and turn the circle pits in front of those stages into tornados!