Assignment
Closing the Circle
Massacre Records
2016
Assignement is a German band that started in 1994 but did not debut until almost a decade later, for whatever reasons. Since then they have steadily released albums since then, the first two with a German singer, the latter two with Argentinian Diego Valdez of Electronomicon and others fame. While the band started as a thrashy heavy hybrid during their demo years, a more prog power sound finally manifested in their albums and I guess the album sounds a bit like your average Rainbow inspired affair with Valdez sounding like Ralph Scheepers on his lower octaves, without the piercing highs, which I guess is not a bad thing.
Where Assignement falls a bit short is the compositions. Without having any terrible flaws, they tend to be mostly mid-tempo and they hardly manage to excite… “Closing the Circle”, the more indulgent “Presence of Death” and the more temperate and melodic “Variaxis” are among the better moments, while the ten minute “epic” “Between Parallel Worlds” barely manages to not collapse beneath its own ambition, as the band tries to combine everything but the kitchen sink, with some weak female vocals even registering in this needlessly long composition. Not bad, but far from something life changing…
Where Assignement falls a bit short is the compositions. Without having any terrible flaws, they tend to be mostly mid-tempo and they hardly manage to excite… “Closing the Circle”, the more indulgent “Presence of Death” and the more temperate and melodic “Variaxis” are among the better moments, while the ten minute “epic” “Between Parallel Worlds” barely manages to not collapse beneath its own ambition, as the band tries to combine everything but the kitchen sink, with some weak female vocals even registering in this needlessly long composition. Not bad, but far from something life changing…