Review: Blynd – Punishment Unfolds
Dec 10Blynd – Punishment UnfoldsForming in 2003 and hailing from an island nation not widely known in the metal community for its output of horn-raising music, Cyprus band Blynd has already put out some quite respectable releases in the form of 2 EPs and a debut full length album. Working both within and outside the boundaries of several genres, including modern thrash, death, and groove metal, the band has been working steadily towards a cohesive and solidified sound of their own. The recent release of their sophomore album, Punishment Unfolds, is quite easily the coalescence the quartet have been homing in on since their inception.Opening the effort with the appropriately foreboding orchestral and choral intro, Divine Gathering, the band sets the stage for a hard hitting blend of metal that, even at its more subdued moments, hardly ever lets up on the barrage of pummeling aggression that defines the album. With Arrival of the Gods, the band displays the toolset of styles that will be utilized for the entirety of the album: a driving beat fueling a modern thrash sound, accented with skillfully coherent death vocals. By the time the chorus rolls around, we are treated with another component to the band’s soundscape that makes its appearance on several tracks in the way of an open, melodic chord progression that wholly channels the Gothenburg sound embraced by many a modern Swedish melo-death ensemble. The titular track continues the onslaught, picking up the tempo and features something else that makes a distinct impression on most of the album’s tracks, a blistering guitar solo that makes its home high up in the sonic range of the mix. The rest of the tracks on the album make use of the basic elements already mentioned, but each in their own way, The Chosen Few sports a more hard rock driven trash sound in the riffing, Sins to the Cross, probably more than any other song delves into the Swedish sound to good results, and Convicted in the Devil’s Land, a pulsing march-like heavy hitter, not only displays the most developed and varied song structure, but also the most cohesive amalgamation of hard rock, thrash, and death metal on the record.While the band has certainly found their sound on Punishment Unfolds by combining the best parts of varying metal styles, I would be hesitant to say that they are using to its full potential yet....
Review: Skelator – Agents of Power
Nov 23Skelator – Agents of PowerI will always admit to having a whole-hearted fondness for any modern band that is able to capture and channel the raw unchained energy and ass-kicking metal assault first unleashed by the speed/power/NWOBHM bands of days gone by without existing merely as a contrived tribute act. Which is why it’s always a more than pleasant experience to not only come across such bands, but to find them in my own neck of the woods. Skelator have been banging heads and calling to the elder gods of metal for more than a decade now, starting with their roots in San Diego playing their own brand of early thrash infused garage metal, they eventually relocated to the Emerald City, Seattle, and evolved a more refined (but not ‘produced’) style that beckoned to the classic pioneers of speed and power roof rattlers. This has culminated so far into the classic metal epic ‘Agents of Power’ album released earlier this year.The first four songs on this newest effort by the Seattle band are a study in everything that made British flavored heavy metal the driving force of a music revolution, breakneck tempos, big wide open power chords, and sailing chorus’s that demand singing along to with an obligatorily raised fist. The titular namesake of the album starts things off right, with a distinct pre-thrash feel that sets the mood for the rest of the journey, and also acts as a good introduction to the impressive vocal abilities of the band’s frontman, Jason Conde-Houston, who at times sounds like a bastard lovechild spawned between Rob Halford and Geoff Tate. Gates of Thorbardin follows to open things up a bit, offering a slower and much more expansive structure, with the epic war-ballad feel of a classic Dio track. This is further expanded with Dream Dictator, an up tempo rocker with some impressive lead work on the guitars, and devolves into slower instrumental bits with big sound, large rhythm chords with wailing and melodic leads, only to kicks right back into high gear on a dime with a headbanging tempo, making for a well rounded song. After Rhythm of the Chain, a meaty fist pumper that would make a great Priest-esque biker anthem, the album then begins its main feature, a 40 minute 12-part epic titled “Elric: The Dragon Prince”, in the true vein of classic power metal.This concept piece covers the...
Review: Kreator – Phantom Antichrist
Aug 09Kreator – Phantom Antichrist Review If there’s one thing that can bring a smile to any headbanger’s face, it’s hearing a classic stand-by releasing an album that not only shows the band sticking to their guns, but doing so at the top of their game. And for the past handful of albums, Kreator has been making alot of headbagers smile. Even after a short period of experimentation in their career, which almost seemed necessary (and in the opinion of this reviewer, really were not that bad), the teutonic thrashers have retained every bit of the hard hitting riffage that made them a staple in the genre. The group’s newest effort, Phantom Antichrist, does well to prove this, seeming to distill all the facets that have made up the Kreator sound over the years: driving drums, catchy breakneck riffing, epic sounding chord progressions, and even some small glimpses into their Endorama days by the way of mainman Mille singing slow and low on certain interludes.Appropriately enough for their signature call-to-arms sound, the album kicks off with a slow-building instrumental, Mars Mantra that sets the stage for the epic war songs to come before kicking into the in-your-face title track thrasher, featuring some great sounding drums that pummel through the mix with heavy blast beats. Vocalist Mille’s raspy, verse spitting voice sounds as good as ever and delivers his forceful lyrics just as fast as he does the often break-neck riffs. This charges seamlessly into another appropriately thrashy track, Death to the World, which features a very Kreator-sounding mix of staccato verses leading into the kind of slower, epic sounding, fist-raiser chorus that defines the majority of the offerings on the album. There are a few slower moments here, if they can be called as such, notably Your Heaven, My Hell, and a nice sounding classical guitar intro on United in Hate, but even then everything still comes heavy and punches hard. This is thanks in part to the album’s production, handled by the never-to-disappoint Jens Bogren at his Fascination Street studios, and who gets everything to sound as tight as possible while still retaining that raw, garage-bourne feel so inherent to the band’s thrash metal style. From Flood Into Fire is a good showcase for this, the melodic lead guitar parts cut through the mix perfectly, and the drums punch hard and clean.On the whole, Kreator has once again produced...
Review: Sodom – Agent Orange
Jun 05Sodom – Agent OrangeReviewWhile the ‘Big Four’ were laying their groundwork for thrash in the US throughout the ‘80s, the ‘Big Three’ were doing likewise across the pond in Germany. Sodom, the brother component of the Three, alongside Destruction and Kreator, that most often sported future influences of death and black metal, released their cornerstone album, Agent Orange in 1989 a record that not only established them as important fixtures in the underground metal world, but also proved to be a commercial success for the band. While it provided only a temporary break into the mainstream of the metal genre, the record displayed an all-around thrash mastery and established a recognizable trademark sound for the band.The effort starts off the title track, a song with a grandiose Master of Puppets-esque intro, with slow, epic power chords before appropriately kicking into the high tempo thrash that characterizes the album as a whole. Tom Angelripper snarls his way through all the tracks with his signature not-quite-yelling, not-quite-growling vocals, while also laying down some great bass tracks. In a good segway, the album flows into Tired and Red which sports an elongated instrumental intro and some fiery lead word by guitarist Frank Blackfire. Guitars on all the tracks are what makes good thrash what it is: fast, loud, and unrelenting, and while they mostly follow the bass tracks laid down by songwriter Tom Angelripper, they are given enough room on every song to stretch their wings in the way of leads and solos. An interesting sidetrack of ‘Agent Orange’ can be found in Ausgebombt, an almost hardcore punk song that mirrors more Motorhead than it does Slayer. While different, the song is a welcome flavor to mix things up, and does a good job to portray a future era of the band, when they later focus on a more cross-over thrash sound. Immediately afterwards, the band jumps straight back into the thrash wagon with Baptism of Fire, another song that, with others like Exhibition Bout and Magic Dragon, make the album the great German thrash centerpiece that it is. Sodom closes the record with Don’t Walk Away, a Tank cover that the showcases the band’s British heavy metal influences, and one they do quite a good job putting their more aggressive sound into.While not a masterpiece album, nor even sporting much in the way of stand-out tracks, Agent Orange stands on its...
Review: Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast
May 01Municipal Waste – The Fatal Feast Review After taking most of 2011 off to write and record their new album, crossover thrashers Municipal Waste set some high expectations for those looking to get a fix of punk-infused mosh music. It’s a good thing then, that the group’s newest release ‘The Fatal Feast’ delivers that very sucker punch to the neck that fans were waiting for, while at the same time adding a few welcome dimensions to their already established sound.On the whole, ‘The Fatal Feast’ retains everything that the group is known for: breakneck thrash riffs, frenetic tempos, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, over the top party fueled energy, and all of that forcefully injected into the ears in succinct, under-two-minute doses. In fact, only about four songs out of the seventeen or so on the record push past the three minute mark, but with the amount of energy in each bite, ala the groups hardcore punk songwriting style, every song comes across as filling, regardless of the length. And even if one was to take note of the truncated bits of aural assault, the impression is quickly beaten away as soon as the next track kicks you in the gut. However, one of the welcome new aspects of this album is Municipal Waste’s exploration of expanded songs. They seem to have discovered in songs like The Fatal Feast, that slowing the tempo a little (by Municipal Waste standards, that is), they can allow the thrash riffs some level of open space to create hard-edged grooves and hooks that come through the rhythm more, while still retaining the same punch found in the higher tempo songs. A lesson that can certainly be learned by many bands, and one that the ‘Waste have learned, is that speed can accentuate heaviness in a song, but does not create it on its own.Those most familiar with the band might first notice Ryan Waste’s slightly expanded guitar repertoire on The Fatal Feast. On this record he seems a tad more lead guitar minded than on previous records, providing more high-stringed thrash licks and even some very respectable solos on songs like Repossession and Authority Complex. In the case of the former, Ryan showcases his Slayer influence with a frenetic solo that Kerry King could be proud of. Although, these added flavors in the guitar work also create the only drawback of the album, which is that...
Review: Overkill – The Electric Age
Apr 16Overkill – The Electric Age ReviewOverkill is one of those 80’s era thrash bands that seemed to never consider stopping or even slowing down as a career option. Ever. And with modern releases like Electirc Age, that’s definitely not a bad thing by any stretch. For a band going on 32 years now, it’s good to see the boys from Jersey putting out yet another solid release, especially one that shows them no worse for wear after sixteen studio albums.While 2010’s Ironbound album saw the thrashers spread some musical wings, broadening songs with near progressive structures and chilled out wanderings, The Electric Age assumes the more straight-to-the-throat attack that Overkill has always had a knack for. The album opens up with two songs that do well to illustrate this, Come And Get It and Electric Rattlesnake. The former does a good job of being a trademark Overkill song and will probably be a new staple of live shows with its fast, driving tempo and classic crew shouted chorus. Electric Rattlesnake keeps up the pace, featuring some of the cool sounding left to right panned vocals that Bobby ‘Blitz’ has been known to throw into the mix in recent years, and even has a good change-up in the way of a mid-song breakdown lead by D. D. Verni on bass, like what we saw alot of on Ironbound. It is also worth noting that these two stand-outs of the album work well to demonstrate that being 52 years of age has done little to dampen Blitz’s trademark snarls and shrieks, and they sound just as good as ever with the added grizzled qualities of a thrasher who’s been around the block.Other songs on the album mix it up well enough to keep it flowing, such as down tempo songs like Black Daze giving the listener a near-breather with its marching, fist pumping chorus that is just begging to be chanted along with. Even the filler songs like 21st Century Man and Wish You Were Dead provide a good flow to the album in keeping up the energy that is the namesake of the album itself before closing the effort off with All Over But The Shouting and Good Night, two songs that feel as much like pure Overkill songs as anything, with their oh-so-evil and ominously built up bridges and catchy, sing along choruses.While on the whole, The Electric Age...
