“Welcome mister Metallica. Take a place in one of our comfortable seats. You can sit next to Mr. Skinlab right there and if you wait a couple of seconds Robb Flynn will arrive. Ah there he is, I wish you an enjoyable stay.”

This is None in a nutshell. They just released their latest album Blackstar. Who is None? None is a Polish nu-metal band. I believe I have nu-metal CDs from every country in Europe by now. The question is whether None is good enough to attract attention from the spoiled nu-metal fans in Europe or not. The answer is somewhere in between yes and no.

Let’s start with what None has: a good production, some cool guitar riffs, good structure in the songs and accidentally some creative parts. What None has not: a singer who can make the difference, their own identity and explosive breakdowns.

It is too predictable.

It’s not a bad album, but it certainly isn’t good enough to rise above the sea of nu-metal releases of this year. It’s just that you can predict everything, almost everything has already been done. But at the same time, this is a CD that you can put on without getting irritated. They certainly have potential (“Hard On My Way” and “The Other Eyes” are superb songs and “Burning Land” is something different, which sounds very cool), and I wish vocalist Fajfer would do more with his voice, like in the aforementioned song.

I rate this album with 7.5 points, but I advice every hardcore fan of nu-metal to listen to it and build their own opinion. Some may choose to buy, others won’t.