Eden Fire

by Greg Prato

Since heavy metal is often thought of as the chief musical choice of teenage rock fans, it would only seem natural that there would be bands comprised of members still in or barely out of their teenage years. Case in point, Sonic Syndicate, as several members of the Swedish sextet had not yet passed the "20-year-old mark" when their debut full-length, Eden Fire, appeared in late 2005. One of the few modern-day metal bands to be multi-gendered, Sonic Syndicate follows the same game plan as many a band seen on Headbangers Ball: hardcore vocals, metallic riffs and beats, and goth keyboards are all easily detected. Immediately upon hearing such tracks as the album opening "Jailbreak" (no relation to the Thin Lizzy song of the same name), "Zion Must Fall," and "Where the Black Lotus Grows," the words "heavy" and "brutal" should immediately come to mind. But again, there's not a lot separating the group sonically from countless other metal bands on the scene. That said, it is impressive that a band possessing such young members could easily match up to the majority of the competition of the early 21st century metal world.