As our chief editor Andrea Chirulescu aptly put it, Black Corona is quite a seasonal name given the current state of global emergency. Now, it would have been even stranger had this Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austrian melodic groove/death metal construct named themselves AFTER this viral season, which we know they had not since their first and only recording before this, their debut album, the demo simply called Demo was released in 2019 (although, you know COVID-19, not COVID-20).

Now, Art Gates Records usually releases good stuff and Mario Fetz (vocals, guitar), Herbert Sopracolle (backing vocals, guitar), Stefan "Jerry" Jerabek (backing vocals, guitar), and Fabian Straue (drums) do a good job on "The Mission". Roughly the first half of the album is Machine Head-ian/Lamb Of God-ish groove combined with Omnium Gatherum-ic melodiscism encased in latter In Flames-ian songwriting, with hardcore screams a cross between Matthew Kiichi „Matt” Heafy (Trivium) and Trevor Phipps (Unearth) and cleans a’la Anders Fridén (In Flames). The In Flames-ian accent hits you right off the bat, the opener "Sweet Shadow" triggering "My Sweet Shadow" flashback to 2004, while the slightly better "Areas" could easily be on "Soundtrack To Your Escape". Whenever you get to the title track you also notice the mediocre mix which buries much of the melody while killing the necessary light/dark balance and therefore making the title track the worst on the record, never a good thing. "Backdraft" and "Flow" both have the same problem although the pleasant melodiscism is noted despite its murder by the mix.

Things do get better on track 6, that is, for the second half, with "Aterna" a very melodic mix of cool Katatonia rhythm and In Mourning melody, where, interestingly, the mix sounds better and more nuanced, something astonishingly true as for the more groovy and faster Paradise Lost-ic "Resolution" with supermelodic epic Unearth-ly/Killswitch Engage-ing guitarwork, as for the last original cut on the album, the excellent all around Omnium Gatherum-ish "Apatheon" which wouldn’t be out of place on "Beyond" or "Grey Heavens", for the best track on the album and my favorite. The record is rounded up by a decent At The Gates cover of "The Night Eternal" where, again, you wonder why the mix is only decent for the 2nd half of the album.

Black Corona may not be as world-shaking as one of the Devil’s pitiless creations that has mankind on their knees right now, but already on their debut album the Austrians do show a potential to go places if they tweak the production aspect and work harder on making the songs interesting and less predictable.

http://www.black-corona.com/