HAVEN DENIED – Illusions
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 26-09-2011
Portuguese heavy metal band with a boatload of modern influences on this third album “Illusions”. When the vocalist sings clean, he has a sultry, bluesy overtone on “Of Illusions We Will Die” and then incorporates this with the Phil Anselmo sneer and savage screams on “You Are Really A Man”. Musically Haven Denied have more in common with Godsmack and Lamb Of God than they do anything closer to the thrash style described in their bio sheet. The double bass tone on “Illusions” appears to be the work of any number of computer samples – and overall these 10 songs just made me yawn over their ambition to be Americanized without really delivering anything new or interesting to the table.
Enough guitar squeals to irritate anyone over 40, Haven Denied need to go back to the drawing board.