Drone
Head-On Collision

November 2007
Released: 2007, Armageddon Music/Sound Pollution
Rating: 1.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Drone is a German act that was formed 2005. They won the final search at Wacken Open Air where more than 1500 bands participated. Drone has been touring Germany and has been making noise there, and now it’s time for the rest of the world to hear Drone. The bio describes the music as thrash mixed with modern and old-school influences. That doesn’t mean much to me. In my ears, this is nothing but modern thrash with a load of mellcore in it. It’s energetic and technical with lead-singer Hempel talking/singing his way through the songs. Even though he isn’t much of a singer, he should get credit for singing in flawless English, which many foreign bands have problems with. And if I didn’t know that Drone was from Germany I’d think they came from USA.

I have listened to the 11-track album many times and I have huge problems with the material. Sure, the music is well played and professionally executed, but the entire album lacks energy and vitality. The songs sound more or less like each other largely due to the constant singing/talking by Hempel. And just because you’re a technical player doesn’t mean that you have you put technical details into every single song.

The album is produced by the famous Andy Classen and the production is the only thing on this album that’s perfect and flawless. Aside from that, this is a boring album that’s too technical and it feels like the band is only in it to show off their skills. Maybe fans of modern mellcore thrash can appreciate this; I don’t. Fortunately, the band members are young and have their future ahead of them; maybe we’ll hear something better from them in the future.