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1. Naked
2. Terror A.I.D.S.
3. Life Is Wrong
4. A Long Time Ago
5. Seeking A Door
6. Feel Your Truth (Betray The World)
7. Odio Song
8. Nuclear Epidemy
9. Is Death My Solution?
Karma were a fitting addition to the South American scene, sporting almost
typically heavy thrash metal with gruff vocals. Fear Of Destiny does
not immediately sound like a highly inspirational piece of work - in many
ways, the influence of Sepultura and the like is more than evident. But while
the initial impression may appear only so-so, it sort of improves when you get
further into this album. In all honesty, Karma's repertoire is really not too
varied, and every so often there comes a moment when you cannot help but wish
that some more versatile riffs had been utilized. There is still enough room
for an occasional semi-convincing song or two, and ultimately one should not
consider this a flimsy effort by any means. It's just that in a wider
perspective the appeal of Fear Of Destiny is rather limited at best.
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1. A Clockwork Out Of Order
2. Moment 22
3. Merciless Insanity
4. Tban - The Fastest
5. Honesty The Right Excuse
6. Dance Tarantella
7. Blind Illusions
8. Three Minator
9. Echoes From The Past
10. Stagedive To Hell
While Kazjurol were not Sweden's most notable speed/thrash metal export, their
music more than fits the typical formal requirements in the genre. On Dance
Tarantella the band even tried to add some variety of their own into the
mix, and although the result is left short of truly memorable, at least there
is some real effort behind it. Everything is in place in the sound department,
therefore it is a shame that the album does not feature more original or
striking content. Some of the most straightforward pieces like Merciless
Insanity and Stagedive To Hell are simple but sort of effective
thrashers where the band don't hold back in the least, though of course the
presentation still doesn't compare to the best of the field in a favorable
way. Dance Tarantella can boast a couple of interesting moments, but
eventually it ends up being like so many others, a bit of a faceless release.
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1. Intro
2. Death Command
3. Summon The Mortals
4. Sentenced To Death
5. Spreading Evil
6. Keller
7. Holy Slaughter
8. Manicomio
9. Follow My Lead
10. Beyond Recognition
11. In Hands Of Tormentor
There might not be much about Keller's Spreading Evil that would
actually make this album stand out. But that doesn't make it a failed attempt
either. The band's sound in general is kind of appealing, dark and sufficiently
heavy, and there's some consistent quality in the riffage. While it may be
difficult to find any actual highlights among these tracks, more important than
that is the general coherent and rather powerful feel of the album as a whole.
More than anything, this is a fairly solid full-length recording of
street-credible thrash metal, not a mere haphazard collection of individual
songs. It could have used some more creative songwriting here and there, yet
the outcome can be deemed at least satisfactory. Above all, it does not sound
dumb in the least.
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1. The Cause Of All War
2. Iram Of The 'Ad
3. Hell Patrol
4. Free To Obey
5. Chemical Attack
6. Illuminati
7. The Vile, The Bad And The Ugly
8. Nightmare Existence
9. Nuclear Proliferation
10. Persecution Of The Hmong
As it turns out, the roots of Kemakil reach all the way back to the original
1980s British thrash metal scene, which probably explains the band's nicely
traditional sound that has more warmth to it than the products of your average
contemporary acts usually do. The presentation is credible and spontaneous, and
although this is their first full-length album, it would be fairly easy to
mistake Kemakil for some less known veteran group with several releases in
their discography. For once, they seem to be capable of maintaining a healthy
balance between high speed and more emphatic breaks. Certainly the band's style
is nothing exceptional or even particularly catchy, but this album flows
effortlessly enough so that it wouldn't be an unpleasant task to play it once
in a while.
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1. Pray To See The Day
2. Chaos & Fire
3. Unholy Swarm
4. Violent Dementia
5. Reign Among The Dead
If violent thrash metal in the vein of Slayer and the like is your thing then
Killing Chapel could be a moderately interesting pick. Enter The Chapel
echoes the sound of the band's apparent role-models from the 1980s, with
some lengthy but aggressive tracks and occasional chaotic moments especially
in guitar solos. Despite having only a few songs, the total length of this
release is almost a half hour, a lot of which is consumed by the opening and
ending tracks that are unexceptional yet robust pieces. The presentation is
fairly ordinary, dry and plain, and the result is a basic thrash metal album
that does not belong anywhere near the top spot. Even so, Enter The Chapel
can be seen as a working man's thrash metal title that deserves to exist in the
scene.
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1. High On Homicide
2. Await To Tear
3. Hide Behind The Cross
4. Never To Return
5. Insanity's Depths
6. Lord Of The New Faith
7. Dead Skin Mask
8. Shredded Humans
High On Homicide notably differs from Killing Chapel's previous release,
as the songs are generally shorter and more straightforward. There are a
couple of tracks where the antics of early death metal momentarily take over,
namely Never To Return and the Cannibal Corpse cover song Shredded
Humans. As the band also decided to cover Slayer's well-known but slow
Dead Skin Mask, this album unavoidably ends up being somewhat more
patchy than one would like to expect based on the strong start only. This is
kind of unfortunate since most tracks here are not too bad at all. Although
High On Homicide is already now only barely a full-length release, it
could have been better as a solid mini album if the unnecessary filler material
had been left out.
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1. Body Count
2. Enemy Within (Cycle Of Insanity)
3. Faith Against Faith
4. Infected
5. Demise Of Humanity
6. Status Nine
7. Frozen Refuge
8. Fall From Grace
9. Altered Image
10. Compelled By Fear
Killjoy may be better known for his work as the vocalist of the death metal
band Necrophagia than for this off-shoot album from the time when Necrophagia
was on hold. Nevertheless, Compelled By Fear is a decent, thrashy
release on its own. With a shredding guitar sound and enough ideas in
songwriting, this album manages to avoid a lot of the usual dullness that
prevails on many lesser albums of the time. Complete with two crunchy
instrumentals, the music is slightly more ambitious than one might have
expected from this kind of a side-project. Even with the quality varying a bit,
Compelled By Fear is quite a satisfactory piece of work.
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1. Victim And Hate
2. Detonation
3. Web Of Lies
4. Fanatical Devotion
5. False Pride
6. Punish With Death
7. Core Dead
8. Scream
It should raise some serious interest in advance when a band share members with
Ritual Carnage, as the latter group must have made some of the better releases
in the genre. However, the music of King's-Evil (as they like to write it, for
whatever reason) does not come close to the recordings of their more famous
peers. Deletion Of Humanoise provides competent but routine-like thrash
metal that you could expect from pretty much any other typical band in the
scene as well. The vocals are sufficiently harsh and determined and the riffs
flow fast and smooth, but when the time comes to point out some really
memorable songs, this album falls short in the same way as most other average
releases do. Despite the promising background, Deletion Of Humanoise
ultimately presents nothing new under the sun.
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1. Trace Of Insanity
2. Stab In The Back
3. Bind Torture Kill
4. Retaliation For The Wretch
5. Gaze Into The Brain
6. Infected With The Blood
7. Leviathan
8. Impudence Of Brutality
As it appears, King's-Evil cannot be accused of making their albums in a rush.
Released ten years after the band's previous effort, Sacrosanct
practically sounds like it could have been put out in the very same year as
Deletion Of Humanoise and most people would have noticed little or no
difference. With virtually no changes in the music, pretty much the same
commentary could be applied here as earlier. Bind Torture Kill is
frenzied enough to deserve a nod of approval, the rest of the album sounds a
lot more average and the most dragging pieces like Gaze Into The Brain
are downright boring experiences. One can only hope that any further releases
won't be suffering from the same problem anymore.
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1. Eternal Flood
2. Mental Sadism
3. Riot Of Blood
4. The Iceman
5. Malapane Valley Thrashers
6. Born To Sin
7. Suicide World
8. Way Of Destruction
9. Psychosis Of Fear
With a sharp sound quality, Mental Sadism exhibits something of an
analytical approach to thrash metal. Komutator's style is semi-technical and
somewhat cold but not hard to listen to. The most obvious drawback must be the
vocals that initially appear terribly amateurish and flimsy, but surprisingly
you get used to them after only a few tracks. It must be said that a slightly
more credible tone could have improved the result quite a bit, though. That
aside, Mental Sadism is fairly promising and well-performed for a debut
release, it just doesn't feature any exceptional qualities that would somehow
make this album more noteworthy than your average pack.
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1. The Dark Side Of The Mind
2. Brain Wash
3. Born To Kill
4. Elm Street
5. The World Is A Stage
6. Under The Sun
Although Korzus are actually one of the oldest thrash metal bands from Brazil,
it wasn't until Pay For Your Lies that they started to make recordings
in English. The earlier experience probably shows here in a positive way, as
the sound of this mini album leaves little to be desired, being very heavy and
full. In fact, the only nitpick production-wise is about the vocals that sound
pretty thin especially when compared to the otherwise perfectly thick wall of
sound. Musically this album features some great headbanging stuff with lots of
good, strong riffs. Most tracks are rather short, fast bursts that just leave
you hoping for more - with such simple but highly effective pieces like
Brain Wash this album is bound to catch your interest. For its length,
Pay For Your Lies is pretty satisfying.
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1. Agony
2. Victim Of Progress
3. P.F.Y.L.
4. Beyond The Limits Of Insanity
5. Unpredictable Disease
6. Mass Illusion
7. Kids Of The Streets
8. Blood For Blood
9. Living In Pain
10. Raise Your Head
11. Midnight Madness
12. The Illuminated
13. Inutil
With Mass Illusion Korzus continued in the vein of very heavy and
furious thrash metal. Agony is a particularly strong opening track and
gives this album a great start even though the rest of the songs are not quite
as distinctive. The songwriting is very consistent, though, and sticking to
the style of heavy no-nonsense thrash sort of makes this album even a
refreshing experience. In comparison to the preceding mini album, the sound of
this full-length is somewhat more refined, especially the vocals are much
heavier than before. Despite some slightly less interesting content than on
Pay For Your Lies and the fact that Mass Illusion is not too
distinguishable from the majority of old-school thrash metal releases, friends
of a heavy sound in the style of Sepultura or Brazilian bands in general
surely know what to expect from this one.
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1. Discipline Of Hate
2. Truth
3. 2012
4. Raise Your Soul
5. My Enemy
6. Revolution
7. Never Die
8. Slavery
9. Last Memories
10. Under His Command
11. You Reap What You Sow
12. Hell
13. Hipocrisia (bonus)
After the release of Mass Illusion there seemed to be not much worth
mentioning from the Korzus camp for many years, their half-groove ridden
Ties Of Blood notwithstanding. But Discipline Of Hate changed
everything. This may be one of the stronger "comeback" albums from an original
thrash metal band in the new millennium, although Korzus never really left the
scene. The riffs are quite good, the band play very well, and the production
quality is simply great. Even more important than that, the general feel of
this album is very enthusiastic and forceful. Add a large number of total
crushers like the title track, 2012, and My Enemy, to name just a
few, and it shouldn't be hard to see where the overall good impression stems
from. Especially those people who remained disappointed at Slayer despite their
partial rejuvenation should seriously look into Discipline Of Hate, as
this album is something that certainly even the more famous contemporaries of
Korzus could be proud of.
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1. Fuck I.D.
2. Fucking Liar
3. Keep It Thrashing Or Die
4. Violent Mosh
5. Thrash Is Back
6. Kill Disgusting People
Objectively speaking, Kraptor's debut mini album is not a bad release. Most of
the time these songs sound sufficiently powerful if also rather unexceptional,
and as a whole this thing is probably not quite as dull as many full-length
recordings of the same kind often turn out to be, at least in a short run.
Maybe the biggest drawback therefore is that this album effectively doesn't have a point.
While the band occasionally show hints of higher ambitions, tracks like
Keep It Thrashing Or Die, Violent Mosh and Thrash Is Back
are not really the most advanced examples of what thrash metal has to offer.
After all, Fucking Liar deserves a fair listen - but it is almost
equally tempting to use it as a fancy looking drink coaster instead.
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1. Intro (Curfew For The Damned Graves)
2. Night Of The Living Dead
3. Damage Brain
4. Murder King
5. Intro - The Barbara's Undead Chronicles
6. The Barbara's Undead Chronicles
7. Civil Disobedience
8. Origin Of Terror
9. Insane TV Madness
10. Unknown Medical Infection
11. Reanimator
12. Intro - Leatherfake
13. Leatherfake
14. Outro - Dawning
Night Of The Living Dead notably differs from its predecessor, and
fortunately for the better. Although topics like zombie outbreak, misuse of
power, and breakdown of society are hardly novel, using them together as
thematic elements is enough to make this album appear more ambitious than your
typical thrash metal platter. Kraptor didn't sound weak on their first release
either, but here the band's usual strong delivery is combined with some welcome
progression in both songwriting and presentation. The tracks are generally
convincing enough, although a couple of dramatized interludes manage to sound
just awfully comical and more like outtakes from some cheap and cheesy TV show,
which must have been done on purpose. Truth to be told, this is a far cry from real
classics in the field, for Kraptor's style is still too reliant on certain
overused thrash metal antics. But when everyone and their dog seem to be
focused on reinventing the wheel, even moderate displays of imagination like
this are worth some attention.
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1. Endless Pain
2. Total Death
3. Storm Of The Beast
4. Tormentor
5. Son Of Evil
6. Flag Of Hate
7. Cry War
8. Bone Breaker
9. Living In Fear
10. Dying Victims
As one of the oldest European thrash metal bands, Kreator had a significant
position in the genre even in a worldwide scale. However, for other than its
consistent high speed Endless Pain didn't yet radically differ from
other releases in the same year. Admittedly this album made an important
initial contribution to a more extreme form of expression that would become
known as the German school of thrash metal, but the band's sound here is still
fairly undeveloped which can make it a bit tiresome listening experience. On
this and the next couple of albums the vocal duties were shared between Mille
and Ventor, and while Mille already had some good nasty attitude going on this
debut, Ventor's part and the vocal output on the whole left some room for
development. Endless Pain undoubtedly deserves its nostalgic status, but
it does not really compare to Kreator's better works released in later years.
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1. Choir Of The Damned
2. Ripping Corpse
3. Death Is Your Saviour
4. Pleasure To Kill
5. Riot Of Violence
6. The Pestilence
7. Carrion
8. Command Of The Blade
9. Under The Guillotine
10. Flag Of Hate (bonus)
11. Take Their Lives (bonus)
12. Awakening Of The Gods (bonus)
Based on the classy and almost ethereal intro, it would have been impossible to
expect the level of chaos that Kreator's Pleasure To Kill actually
contains. Essentially this is nothing more than a faster, even more intense but
also better produced version of Endless Pain. In that sense most of the
same good and bad points apply here, too. This album is a good example of
high-speed antics taken to the extreme, but it appears that more emphasis was
put on speed alone than riffs which are not quite strong enough to carry the
weight of a full-length album. A couple of exceptions aside, most songs are not
distinctive enough to make it a day. Considered a classic album by many,
Pleasure To Kill does deserve respect for its sheer brutal execution
alone, but it also represents a certain noisy part of the thrash metal genre
that can honestly be something of an acquired taste.
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1. Blind Faith
2. Storming With Menace
3. Terrible Certainty
4. As The World Burns
5. Toxic Trace
6. No Escape
7. One Of Us
8. Behind The Mirror
Terrible Certainty was a bit better controlled release than Kreator's
previous efforts. The sound quality is sharper and more piercing especially in
the vocal department, down to a nearly inconvenient effect at times. While the
music is not quite as frantic as on Endless Pain or Pleasure To Kill,
the actual stylistic differences are not huge. Most notably, several songs
contain riffs that could be called even memorable although the album as a whole
is not equally impressive. There is already an obvious notion of a more
carefully conceived and serious form of songwriting, and even though the result
may not be fully realized in the best possible manner, the combination of this
and the band's unchanged aggressive attitude is managed in a respectable way.
In practice, Terrible Certainty could be taken as something of a bridge
between Kreator's earliest albums and their more advanced works to follow.
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1. Extreme Aggression
2. No Reason To Exist
3. Love Us Or Hate Us
4. Stream Of Consciousness
5. Some Pain Will Last
6. Betrayer
7. Don't Trust
8. Bringer Of Torture
9. Fatal Energy
It is impossible to omit Extreme Aggression when Kreator's most mature
and effective works are discussed. With this release the band ultimately proved
their worth in creating something more than just a frenzied blur of sound. Even
though the songs occasionally slow down to a reasonable level, a customary feel
of intensity is still preserved, just in a lot more refined and efficient
format than before. These tracks feature some of the best riffs Kreator ever
recorded, and in combination with other general improvements in compositions,
production, and even lyrics, the results are nothing short of stunning. For
example, Some Pain Will Last might be one of the band's best tracks
ever, an evil and menacing piece that seriously could not have been possible on
any of the previous releases. Mille's vocals remain about as raw as ever and
therefore may not quite appear to match the overall progress, but that becomes
eventually a non-issue. With a lot of necessary stylistic and musical
development finally complete, Extreme Aggression is a great thrash metal
album with much to like.
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1. When The Sun Burns Red
2. Coma Of Souls
3. People Of The Lie
4. World Beyond
5. Terror Zone
6. Agents Of Brutality
7. Material World Paranoia
8. Twisted Urges
9. Hidden Dictator
10. Mental Slavery
Upon its release Coma Of Souls was clearly the most technical Kreator
album up to that point. In general, the music is slightly more complex than on
Extreme Aggression though unfortunately not nearly as impressive.
Although the songwriting has taken another step forward, the outcome sounds
strangely impersonal, at times downright devoid of all emotion and energy.
Whereas Kreator's earliest albums could sometimes seem a bit too rushed and
rough around the edges, this recording is close to being an example of another
extreme. Initially it may appear to lack memorable riffs almost completely,
therefore sounding pretty uninteresting. While certainly an advanced release,
Coma Of Souls can require a considerable amount of time before it starts
to grow on you.
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1. Winter Martyrium
2. Renewal
3. Reflection
4. Brainseed
5. Karmic Wheel
6. Realitatskontrolle
7. Zero To None
8. Europe After The Rain
9. Depression Unrest
The first moments of Kreator's Renewal must have been quite shocking
to anyone who had expected the band to continue in their familiar style. On
this album Mille's customary growls were replaced with plain hardcore-ish
shouts that seriously border on monotonic, and the music lost some energy in
favor of more complex, occasionally even experimental touches in songwriting.
Although this change was not totally surprising, considering the technical
approach already present on Coma Of Souls, the difference to Kreator's
older albums is still quite drastic. It doesn't help the situation that this
particular release sounds almost under-produced at times, and the overall feel
is terribly depressive. Renewal is not as bad as you might have been led
to believe, except a couple of more experimental tracks it remains sufficiently
thrashy, but compared to Kreator's more energetic recordings this one comes
across as pretty bland. Not really something that you would like to listen too
often.
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1. Prevail
2. Catholic Despot
3. Progressive Proletarians
4. Crisis Of Disorder
5. Hate Inside Your Head
6. Bomb Threat
7. Men Without God
8. Lost
9. Dogmatic Authority
10. Sculpture Of Regret
11. Celestial Deliverance
12. State Oppression (bonus)
13. Isolation
Following the mixed-up Renewal, Kreator's Cause For Conflict was
something of a temporary return to a more straightforward expression. While it
doesn't quite compare to the most frantic antics of the band's early albums,
at least it sounds slightly more energetic than Renewal, and the
production is a definite improvement. The vocals continue in a shouty vein,
but the outcome is more consistent than previously. Against all these points,
it's a shame that most of the riffs are so unmemorable. Where Renewal
could at least afford a few moments of genuinely interesting songwriting even
though the result as a whole left something to be desired, here no songs
really stick, which leads to the ultimate downfall of this album. It feels
like all the necessary bits were available, but they are so badly scattered
around that the whole thing is less than a sum of its parts. Cause For
Conflict sounds like a standard effort that almost any band could have
come up with, and it seriously tends to leave you numb in the long run.
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1. Reconquering The Throne
2. The Patriarch
3. Violent Revolution
4. All Of The Same Blood (Unity)
5. Servant In Heaven - King In Hell
6. Second Awakening
7. Ghetto War
8. Replicas Of Life
9. Slave Machinery
10. Bitter Sweet Revenge
11. Mind On Fire
12. System Decay
After spending most of the 1990s with either very forgettable or just too
quirky releases, Kreator saw it appropriate to revive classic thrash metal
with Violent Revolution, an album that couldn't have been more welcome.
In the result Mille's vocals appear much like they did in the 1980s, and as
a whole this thing must be the most familiar-sounding Kreator release in a
very long time. It's obvious that in addition to the vastly improved
production values the band had matured a lot over the years. Probably the most
essential difference to the old must be the numerous melodic overtones that
were almost completely missing from the band's earlier efforts but form an
essential factor of the resurrected Kreator. Only the most extreme purists
could consider that as a drawback, though, as the band's sound is very tight
and focused in its current form. Even though it's a bit hard to point out
actual standout tracks, Violent Revolution shows that Kreator still had
a fair amount of energy left in store.
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1. Enemy Of God
2. Impossible Brutality
3. Suicide Terrorist
4. World Anarchy
5. Dystopia
6. Voices Of The Dead
7. Murder Fantasies
8. When Death Takes Its Dominion
9. One Evil Comes - A Million Follow
10. Dying Race Apocalypse
11. Under A Total Blackened Sky
12. The Ancient Plague
Initially Enemy Of God sounds like a logical continuation of Violent
Revolution, in other words, a menacing and really melancholic album with
the melodic aspects of the previous release taken even further. The result is
quite stylish and all, but most tracks seem to plod along in a semi-lazy
manner - the truly inspired moments are a bit too far and between. Technically
there is little left to hope for and the quality is very consistent, it's just
that musically this is nothing to lose sleep over. In fact quite the opposite;
despite their seemingly aggressive nature many of these songs have almost a
drowsy feel to them. One can kind of appreciate what the band were trying to do
with this release, but quite honestly, there are a lot more exciting albums
than this polished and unsurprising effort. Enemy Of God is certainly
well done, but most of the time it feels like something running on autopilot.
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1. Hordes Of Chaos (A Necrologue For The Elite)
2. Warcurse
3. Escalation
4. Amok Run
5. Destroy What Destroys You
6. Radical Resistance
7. Absolute Misanthropy
8. To The Afterborn
9. Corpses Of Liberty
10. Demon Prince
With Kreator's Hordes Of Chaos out in the wild, one can be entitled to
some curious excitement over the outcome before hearing the first note. But
although the title track is a fairly energetic opener in a traditional vein,
the feelings of novelty quickly disappear. It is probably not too much of an
exaggeration to claim that this album could have been called Enemy Of
God, part two - in fact, the commentary for the band's previous release
applies almost unchanged. There is still a strong emphasis on melodic guitar
lines, which is basically a staple of Kreator's renewed sound. Sometimes the
mixture of melody and speed works, To The Afterborn being subjectively a
more successful example than some other tracks here. While it is certainly good
to see the band still making viable music, the subdued sound of Hordes Of
Chaos is a strong reminder that Kreator's present style is far from
thrilling.
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1. After Storm
2. Today Is Like 1940
3. The Same Old Shit
4. Like A Knife
5. Messenger Of Lies
6. A Man Without A Life
7. Watch The End
8. Buried Law
9. Born Dead
10. R.I.P. (Rot In Pain)
11. The Killing Toys
For a thrash metal band, Kremate seem to have a spent quite a lot of time in
the mid-tempo realm on their debut release. It is perfectly acceptable that not
every album tries to break the speed record, but in this case the impression
can be sometimes rather plodding which contributes to a recurring feeling of
melancholy, intentional or not. Despite its occasional short speed bursts and
whole faster tracks, Death: In The Name Of... can be deemed more heavy
than fast. That said, it may not come as a great surprise that this is not a
terribly memorable recording. But it appears that Kremate attempted to create
something of a stylish expression of their own, and despite its fairly average
qualities the outcome does have a solid base in the end, just not too inspiring
at this stage yet.
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1. Intro
2. The Unlucky Winner
3. Cruel Mercy
4. Face To Face
5. Fatal Hatred
6. The Greatest Joke
7. Out Of Society
8. The Circle
9. Greedy Hero
10. Faces Da Violencia
11. To Destroy
12. A Drunk With Blood
The first moments of The Greatest Joke are kind of promising, as
The Unlucky Winner pulls the right strings at the start with its mostly
straightforward execution but also some intriguing touches thrown in the mix.
Apparently the band got bitten by a speed bug at some point after
Death: In The Name Of... because the general feel of this second album
is notably faster and snappier than on the previous release. The overall
quality has not necessarily been improved by the same amount, though, as the
total effect is again quite acceptable but pretty ordinary on most counts.
Although The Greatest Joke is a guaranteed safe pick for most people, it
is hard to avoid wishing for something more different.
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1. Source Of The Swarm
2. Asylum
3. Spunion Field
4. Womb Of Decay
5. Kr'uppt
6. Nocturnal Nomad
7. Protect And Serve
8. Evolution And Creation
9. Internal Subversion
10. Shattered Worlds
The only reason for the near total obscurity of Kr'uppt in the thrash metal
scene must be the time period when this band arose, as there couldn't have been
a worse moment to play thrash metal when The Spunion Field was released.
While the album mainly features reworked material from the band's early years,
a couple of important additions notably contribute to the convincing outcome.
The newest and fastest songs Source Of The Swarm and the title track are
easily the most impressive pieces, especially the latter must be one of the
more memorable thrashers out there. There is nothing wrong with the sound
politics in general, the band's output is quite heavy and stomping, and only
some lack of speed mainly during the second half of this recording prevents it
from gaining more favorable points. Although The Spunion Field may not
be able to preserve the full momentum to the end, this is a release to keep an
eye on if you have even the slightest interest in heavy stuff.
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1. Beyond Darkness
2. Euthanasia
3. Asleep & Buried
4. Opiate For The Masses
5. Struggle For Humanity
6. Experiments In Butchery
7. The Psycho
8. Soul Sacrifice
9. From Gehenna To Here
10. Abominable Bitch
11. Greedpeace
12. Mills Of Justice Slowly Grind
13. Splitting Lanes
The general impression about Kryptor is promising. While Greedpeace is
this Czech band's only known release with English lyrics, their earlier routine
shows in a positive way as the album sounds quite professional. The growling
vocals nicely fit in the band's dark and robust sound, and although originality
may not be the strongest point of this release, there is a sufficient amount of
fairly effective basic riffage mixed with a sense of somberness. You won't find
too many catchy hooks here, but the music remains powerful enough that anyone
with at least an average attention-span should be able to enjoy it. Not to
forget about a couple of more memorable individual tracks like the forceful
Experiments In Butchery that stand out from the rest. For the most part
this recording simply provides a solid load of heavy thrash metal with hardened
riffs.
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1. Death Breath
2. Mongrel Horde
3. Down To The Inferno
4. Liars Dice
5. Passing Away
6. Kublai Khan
7. Clash Of The Swords
8. Battle Hymn (The Centurian)
Probably better known for their early Megadeth connections, Kublai Khan were
one of those classic bands who never made more than one album. Even though
Annihilation is not an exceptional release for its time, it features
some interesting speed/thrash metal. The opener Death Breath is a true
monster of a song, and the rest of the album is pretty much in the same vein -
rather melodic yet heavy, with some good riffs and interesting, even inventive
guitar work throughout. The production could have used some more work, though,
and at times the music seems to lack some intensity. Anyhow, that does not
hinder the fact that as a whole Annihilation is not without merits of
its own.
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