2004-10-05
A new release by one of thrash's best bands, inactive for so long, is somewhat of a gamble for me, either it'll be a great thrash album, capturing all the aggression and quality of past glories, or basically, it'll suck.
I was exhilarated to find of the better thrash releases since the genre's glory days back in the late 80's, a real thrash album, which delves back into the thrash scene without sounding dated or irrelevant.
New vocalist Paul Souza doesn’t sound like former vocalist Mike Munro, but he has the same raw aggression that Munroe had, his voice low and raspy at times, yet his melodic delivery is quite better than Monro's, which makes him the prefect choice for Meliah's brand of highly melodic thrash, apart from that, their musicianship is top notch, the guitar team of Tony Nicholas and Jim Koury is one of the best in the business, delivering some fantastic riffs (the one after the harmony lead in Invincible is one of the best yet), while Barry Spilberg's and Jesse Johnson's rhythm section holds things solidly together.
Opening track Hate Machine has all the ingredients that make this one a winner, great thrashy riff during the verses, good, melodic vocals during the chorus, great middle passage, this is metal the way I always liked it best.
Invincible is an 80's thrash song, great riffs, Souza doing a raw, aggressive version of James Hetfield, this is one of the heaviest tracks on the album.
Title track Barely Human is one of the best cuts, catchy, solid tune, the vocals have this Ozzy quality about them, The chorus is an immediate metal classic, listening to this reminded me why I got into metal, the combination of energy, melody and pure aggression.
Ungodly is a strange piece for the band, starting off with clean guitars, an emotional melodic guitar line, with Souza excelling with great harmonic vocals, before going into a very atypical riff, giving a Paradise lost/Sentenced vibe, this is a great track, and though unordinary, one of the band's best.
More great tracks ahead, Wrong Place, Right time has great thrash riffs and raw vocals that make this one of the harshest in the album, Rigid is a great, lengthy instrumental track, and its main riff is straight out of the late 80, while Bloodbath gets the prize for instant thrash classic.
The album also includes Unfinished Business, an album recorded some ten years ago but never released, its another fine release, but much rawer, sounding a bit under-produced, it’s a fine album nevertheless, but it pales in comparison to the band's newer material.
In any case, older thrasher like me, and younger metal fans should all get this album, and find out that great metal is still being done, even it takes metal veterans to do it.
Alon Miasnikov
