Irradiant is a punishing album reminiscent of a more exciting version of STRAPPING YOUNG LAD. Yeah you heard right. No disrespect to the man (STRAPPING YOUNG LAD’s Devin Townsend) but SCARVE lay down a fresh metallic attack with a ball-bustin’ attitude (much like SOILWORK when they bursted onto the scene with their second album The Chainheart Machine). Irradiant is blistering fast and downright destructive…but most importantly, Irradiant is dynamic thanks to some creative riffing by guitarists Patrick Martin and Sylvian Coudret and top-notch drumming by Dirk Verbeuren. While influences range from DEATH to ATHEIST, SCARVE’s sound is more on par with the aforementioned STRAPPING YOUNG LAD and second-rate Swedish death metallers such as DARKANE, GARDENIAN. But fortunately nothing about this French sextet’s third full-length album is second-rate. (Listenable Records)
