2006-11-07
I'll start with the negative side of this release, the band's name and cover art for the album, they are certainly not doing any good for them, the name sounds like a hard rock band, American style, and the cover is just…incomprehensible, it really doesn’t any good for the stuff that's inside the CD.
Now to the positive side, musically this band kicks ass. Coming off as a more dynamic and better played version of
Machine Head, these guys deal with groove oriented thrash metal with some melodic interludes, they can play, they create some truly memorable songs, such as the crashing opener "Steamhammer", and they also benefit from a smooth and well-fitted sound for the album. One of the few things hindering this release is some of the melodic vocal parts, though vocalist Ben is one of the band's strongest assets, the mid-section melodic vocals on songs such as "Lord Of Darkness" sound a bit out of place, once he goes into the verses with a strong aggressive voice it sounds great.
Some of the groove thrash here is just plain impressive, "Team Deathmatch" has some of the angriest, best played music this style has to offer, easily reminiscent of Machine Head with slightly more sophisticated riffing & more melodic vocals. The sound makes the tuned-down guitarist stand out perfectly. There is some diversity as well, "Loss" sounds like a grunge song, with Ben's melodic vocals standing out in what his probably his greatest moment here and the riffs are absolute classics.
"The Other Trail" is another great track, some
Black Sabbath tinged stoner riffs with strong death growls thrown in, an interesting breakdown and some melodic vocals that bring to mind more modern metalcore. Ben's multi-layered melodic vocals during the mid-section work great here. Another similar track is "Need To Feel Myself", which suffers a bit from unneeded female vocals.
I cannot fault these guys here, musically this is one of more adult and well done thrash-groove albums around, they do need to work on the outer presentation of the album and maybe consider a name change into something more fitting, but their music certainly deserves a wide enough audience.
Alon Miasnikov
