It
is quite surprising to see what a vocalist can be held responsible for.
Founded in Bristol (England) in 1997, KACHANA started out as a
Thrash/Death Metal act, and in Sascha Darwin they had a vocalist who
knew how to grunt, while their music was akin to that of greats from
Sweden and its neighbouring countries. Those who would like to get an
impression of it should listen to the song "Leper Of This Era” off
2003’s album "Killing Inside” on the band’s website. The song is not bad
at all and will leave you begging for more.
Well,
now that guy left the band one year after that album to fully
concentrate on his band IRONY OF CHRIST. KACHANA’s new man on the mic is
called Tom Morton and he probably is not into the guttural vocals of
his predecessor at all. He sings in a rather traditional fashion, which
is why the band has moved into the camp of Melodic Heavy Metal bands and
is rather following IRON MAIDEN, ICED EARTH, MAJESTY and MANOWAR.
The
six songs on "The Plains Of Illyricum”, which was released in 2006, are
all well-done and should appeal to any fan of Heavy Metal. None of this
is really new, and ultimately I like "Leper Of This Era” better than
the current material, but KACHANA are still recommendable with this
line-up. There is only one thing that bugs me about the clean production
of this self-produced effort: The vocals are a tad too loud.
