Band:	The Old Dead Tree
Album:	The Perpetual Motion
Style:	Gothic metal
Release date:	August 29, 2005
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Out Of Breath
02. Unrelenting
03. I Can't Get Rid Of It
04. What Else Could We've Said?
05. So Be It!
06. Everyday Life
07. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8...
08. By The Way
09. My Friends
10. Even if
11. The Knock Out Song
12. This Is No Farewell

The level of success that "The Nameless Disease" achieved back in 2003 was a blessing and a curse for The Old Dead Tree. A blessing because it was a breath of fresh air in the French (and worldwide) Metal scene, and a curse because they knew that their sophomore was forced to surpass their debut. Besides that, they couldn't repeat themselves in the lyrical subjects from "The Nameless Disease", with all this pressure they embarked in their second adventure, entitled, "The Perpetual Motion".

So, how does this new album ranks? Well, for starters, is not The Nameless Disease part 2, being that a good thing, also the album contains more experimentation, like layered vocals and as always, the clean and growled vocals from Manuel Munoz. Needless to say, the vocal department of The Old Dead Tree is one of their best assets.

The album begins with the powerful "Out Of Breath" immediately you can identify the trademark sound from the band, with "Unrelenting" the band shows a more experimental side, specially in the vocals, "So Be It" is another awesome song with really down-to-earth lyrical subjects. Another intriguing song is "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8?" and its follow-up "By The Way". The only real downpoint of the album is "The Knockout Song" a poorly executed Melodic Death Metal song, I hope they don't go that way in future releases.

We can see a more mature band in this release, maybe this album is less melancholic than the previous, maybe is more progressive, but still I can't deny that is a excellent album, and a worthy follow-up to their debut. On a personal note, I can say that I preferred "The Nameless Disease" more than this one, because it had more melancholic moments and the whole lyrical concept was very easy to identify with (everybody has dead friends right?).
If you liked their debut, I'm pretty sure you're going to like this.