Band:	Xtrunk
Album:	Not In Vain
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Short Of Breath
02. The Face Behind My Eyes
03. That Blood
04. Between The Lines
05. Dictated Love
06. Scream As Loud As You Can
07. Nerves On Edge
08. Desire
09. All Comes To An End
10. The Countdown Has Begun

Thundering Records is a really good label when it comes to discover young talented French bands. Xtrunk is one of the last signatures of the label and I already have the feeling that we will hear a lot of good things about them. With a lot of good ideas and different influences, "Not In Vain" should become one of the revelations of the French scene this year; "Not In Vain" was not done in vain (haha? ).

Xtrunk is a lovely blending of a ton of different Metal. In this release, you'll find the melodies of Power Metal, the anger of Thrash, the violence of Death Metal and the catchy side of Metalcore. Though even if "Not In Vain" can sound a bit mainstream sometime, this album is intelligent and this is not so easy. I mean that the songs are complex and that we have real technical guitar soli. While I was listening to "Not In Vain", I've never had the feeling that this album was false or commercial. Sure the songs of this album are catchy and modern but they're not boring like a ton of other Metalcore releases? "Not In Vain" is full of groovy songs and I like the power of the music of Xtrunk. Really, "Not In Vain" is a great surprise!

Recorded at the NSR Studio (Kragens?) and mastered by Fredrik Nordstrom, "Not In Vain" is really impressive for a first album. First, the band seems to be really mature but also, the album sounds like a really big production. If the guys of Xtrunk wanted to prove that they're talented musicians who can release great albums, even if it's a first release, I can tell you that they managed to do it! "Not In Vain" is a nice album catchy as hell with a lot of good things in it. This is highly recommended for all the metalheads who us to listen to modern Metal.

With "Not In Vain" Xtrunk already confirms that we will not have to forget them when we will talk about the French Metal scene. Nowadays the French scene (especially in Nice, the hometown of Xtrunk but also Kragens or Artefact?) is becoming big and it's hard to find new bands which are totally uninteresting. Xtrunk is a convincing new band and "Not In Vain" is a great album of modern Metal, don't miss it if you like groovy and catchy Metal.