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After All: The Vermin Breed
After All - The Vermin Breed - [Dockyard 1]

2006-07-01

American thrash metal made by a Belgian quintet? Works well, even though the style has been done (or is that overdone?) by giants such as Testament or Megadeth or even Nuclear Assault, and sure makes you want to raise your fist and sing along.

From the very first song, the pounding “Forgotten” (with its addition of effected vocals on the powerful clean ones), through the somewhat similar “The Great Divide” (with it’s Megadeth-esque riffing) up until the strong finish in “Downward” you’re forced to crave for more, as if addicted to the shredding riffs and throaty vocals.

The superve guitar-work all over the place, although not very original, would have put this album in the top Thrash classics if only it was released back in the golden age of thrash. Songs like “Maze of being” and “Deny the dream” could have easily been classics alongside the slower “Cascade”.
Weaker links are the dramatic/chaotic “The insufferable” where it seems the band could have used 10 more years of existence since the instruments don’t fit so well together, and “Unnamed sorrow” where the vocalist’s accent kinda sticks out and the addition of the death metal-like riffing doesn’t go well with the melodic thrash persona of this band; compensation comes in the form of the dynamic riffs and the hand-in-hand walk of vocals and instruments on “Reasonable doubt” and the mini-cover to the immortal song “Bezrker” (out of Kevin Smith’s “Clerks”).

One major fault I find in this album, one I’m sure some will disagree about, is its sound ; the choice of a lifeless flat sound to the drums being the main problem..
Producer Harris Jones went with an intentionally oldschool sounding record, but this decision can come off as a bit bizarre considering it’s 2006 and not 1996 or 1986.

Overall – thrash fans would love it, melodic/American-style thrashers would adore it even though it’s a very unoriginal album. Regardless of its lack of innovation this is still a strong album with an even stronger retro feel.

Ofer Vayner



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