Maplerun: Restless review

America are you ready? Ready for a band that has impressed a man and toured with a man by the name of System of a Down\’sSerj Tankian? Yes you saw it correctly, a band that toured with the prodigy of System of a Down in 2013. Hailing from Greece, Maplerun is finally making their American release of their 2012 European album Restless. There is a single word in Webster\’s dictionary that can describe the feeling that one will get from listening to the formation of so many aspects of rock in this album. That word is “polarization.” From the first electric guitar stroke in “Nails” to the final pluck of the acoustic guitar in “The Rain,” long time Maplerun fans and first time listeners will be drawn into the culmination of nu-metal, alternative rock, and modern rock. The heavy intros into the the title track “Restless,” as well as “Whenever” really helps capture one of the bands biggest influences, Metallica. While the remainder of the track “Whenever” shows you their collaborative efforts to show influences similar to System of a Down songs “Aerials” and “Hypnotize.” The beginning of what sounds like a war scene starting. Leading into a very simple methodical guitar rift that continues throughout the song we navigate to the next song on the album “Bombs.” A song the group illustrates well with a closing quote that many Americans will relate to “that our enemies are not five thousand miles away.” This song is one of the few that Maplerun has turned into a music video, which can be found on Youtube. Since the album Restless tells a story the slower songs “Screamout” and “Everytime” have extremely detailed lyrics while engaging the listener to reflect on things in there own lives. This helps setup the next songs that acts as a crescendo for the album “Buried Alive” and “Pills.” Each of which illustrates the perfect mixture of nu-metal and alternative combined, with their heavy guitar rifts and symbols from the groups drummer Chris. Some will say that choosing a song to close an album is sometimes difficult. Maplerun chose a great song, where the acoustic guitar and the lead singer Nick\’s voice make a parallel. A song where neither outweighs the other. The album closes out with a song entitled “The Rain.” After listening to Restless numerous times over there is not a single song that listeners will not appreciate or be able to relate to. Pick up the highly anticipated American release of Restless today! Rating: 9/10 -Luke Balengee