The band's name may immediately bring to mind fellow UK death metal act Bolt Thrower, as may (to a lesser degree) the album's brief instrumental intro of choral synths over samples of marching feet, clashing metal, and oddly futuristic gunshots, but aside from the fact that the songs' lyrical content is in fact driven exclusively by themes relating to war on some level or another, that's basically where the similarities between the two end. "Decrowning the Irenarch" is the sophomore full-length from Spearhead (on Invictus Productions), and marks my first exposure to the band's heavily Angelcorpse-esque take on the genre. (And, hell no, that ain't a bad thing!) Expect loads of furious tremolo picking and rigidly blasting percussion (though not without a sense of purpose and energy), Helmkamp-like vocal snarls and grunts, and a few slower passages with some solos and the like.

I can't ignore the fact that the backbone of the material is absolutely comparable to Angelcorpse at their peak, but where Spearhead starts to draw some distinction is in the use of a hint more variety and breathing room. Yeah, it's true that speed does tend to dominate the bulk of the compositions, but the lead playing tends to slow things down a hint more often to toss in a little more melody and feeling as opposed to taking the explosive and chaotic road, while the slower breaks tend to strip things down to the roots and provide some space to keep the blasting speeds from beating you over the head too persistently. So, in case I'm not making it clear, I'm not trying to take anything away from Spearhead here. I'm a huge Angelcorpse fan, and these guys are doing enough with this particular niche to where they're not falling into the literalness of "Carcass clone" territory or anything like that, you know? (But even then, think how many of those "Carcass clone" bands over the years have kicked some ass, too, you know? In many cases innovation is quite overrated.)

Lyrically the tone is kind of a mix between a more historically-based take on the Bolt Thrower style of straight-up war, blended with – you guessed it – some Angelcorpse-ish similarities in terms of taking these types of ideas and forming them into much more lofty and philosophical notions, so… it's definitely not your basic blood, guts, hellfire kind of thing at all. And the production's not bad, either. It feels like it's missing just a little something (which, as usual these days, I can't quite seem to put my finger on), but I dig the fact that you can hear the basslines peeking into the back of the mix, and for the most part everything gels nicely and feels full and cohesive. It's a solid outing, no doubt about it, and certainly one that should appeal to fans of Angelcorpse and certain niches of "war metal" (though I've never been much for that term, myself). See what you think:

Spearhead "When the Pillars Fall"
Spearhead "Decrowning the Irenarch"

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find this disc at many of the label's US distributors yet for some reason. So you can also check out sites like Hell's Headbangers, Nuclear War Now!, and Moribund Records in the coming months, or contact the band/label at the links above for more information.

Purchase:

@ Red Stream