Review: Game Zero – W.A.R. – We Are Right

The Italian band Game Zero formed in 2013. Two years later they released their debut album, titled Rise. Game Zero’s line-up as can be heard on Rise consists of vocalist/rhythm guitarist Mark Wright, lead guitarist AlexIncubus, bass player Domino and drummer Dave J. Nowadays that line-up is changed in one spot: Aceyguns is Game Zero’s current bass player. On February the 28th, Game Zero released Rise‘s successor. This successor is titled W.A.R. – We Are Right and is released via Art Gates Records.

Something that immediately stands out when you’ve first listened to Rise and start W.A.R. – We Are Right after that is the difference in production. W.A.R. – We Are Right sounds less shrill compared to Rise and due to that this album sounds much more balanced, with every aspect of Game Zero’s music clearly distinguishable.

In opener We Are Right we’ll immediately hear a nice combination of heavy and catchy parts, which is exactly the main power of this album, as we can also hear quite well in, for example, Goodbye, The Stranger, You Choke Me and album closer Full of Nothing. This isn’t the album you’re looking for if you’re in search of extremely heavily pounding metal, but tracks such as Compromise, You Choke Me and Full of Nothing definitely include some nice heavier parts. The nice, energetic, headbangable part during Full of Nothing‘s chorus and the, preceded by a quite calm part, heavy end of that same track, including very nice vocals, are probably standing out the most out of these heavier parts.

The catchy aspect of this album mainly comes from the vocals, those are quite clean and are sung in quite a melodic way. The moment in which this stands out the most is probably the very catchy sing-a-long chorus of Blow Me Away, which will probably do very well when played live, this track has a real festival-vibe to it. In addition to the main vocals this album also includes some moments in which the backing vocals are added in a very well thought-out way, such as in We Are Right, Believe, Compromise and Full of Nothing. Those backing vocals can also be heard in their cover of Simple Minds’ Don’t You.

That cover of Simple Minds’ Don’t You sounds, as you’d probably expect, heavier than the original song and seems to sound more powerful than the original due to that. The original song is surely recognizable in this cover, but I think it’s a bit strange that the track’s title doesn’t include a mention of it being a cover though.

What instrumentally stands out in this cover are the humming bass, which we can also hear in The Stranger, Lying and Full of Nothing, and the nice sound of the guitars. That nice guitar-sound is standing out throughout the entire album though. An example of that is the a bit more lingering sound in The Stranger, which especially becomes clear in the part halfway into this track, which also includes that nicely humming bass as well as deep-sounding drums. Another example of that nice guitar-sound can be heard in the part halfway into You’ve Got To Move One, which gets a bit of a dreamy, atmospheric vibe due to this as well as due to the melodic vocal layer, in Believe, including a nice incoming guitar-intro, and in a calmer way in The Ghost, which also includes quite some reverb and panning, creating a nice effect in this more and more expanding, instrumental track. Of course, the roaring guitar solos aren’t missing, such as in Blow Me Away, You Choke Me and Full of Nothing.

For everyone looking for some nice drum-parts on this album: I already mentioned The Stranger, a few other recommendations for this are the last three tracks on this album: You Choke Me, Lying and Full of Nothing.

This sure is a nice album: W.A.R. – We Are Right by Game Zero!

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