Just after Miami-based metal quartet
Black Tide released their debut in 2008, guitarist Alex Nuñez departed, to be replaced by Austin Diaz. Along with the lineup shift, the band moved in a more distilled, commercial direction for its sophomore album. Produced by
Josh Wilbur and
GGGarth, 2011's
Post-Mortem doesn’t have the ties to hair metal or the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that
Light from Above did. Instead, it finds the group lumped in with contemporary groups like
Avenged Sevenfold,
Between the Buried and Me, and
Bullet for My Valentine. But even if it is not as original or wildly thrashin’ as the first album,
Post-Mortem is still a decent follow-up, especially considering that
Black Tide are still only in their teens. ~ Jason Lymangrover