Holy shit! Okay, I'm gonna have a variety of comments for this amazing Las Vegas thrash band, and some of it's gonna be a little ugly, but I have the absolute best intentions, so please bear with me. First off, the layout on this thing is an absolute abomination that doesn't do the band justice in any way. The band logo stinks, the imagery is weak and looks to be of poor quality, the text on the outer packaging is way goofy, and the cheesily posed band photos are definitely unnecessary. To my dismay I guess they're also gonna be stuck with the lame band name as well, but at least the album and song titles are much better throwbacks to what this band does best, which is to play total fucking late-80's thrash metal in all its glory! No fucking shit! I will state right here and now that this is the most accurate representation of true thrash metal that I've heard in the last 10 years. They sound almost exactly like Kreator circa "Extreme Aggression" (or maybe "Terrible Certainty" with a better recording) and I'm loving every minute of it. Everything about their style is absolutely true to the way thrash metal used to be and has never been since. There's no chugging modern groove, there's no melodic Swedish death metal bullshit, there's no caustic noodling, and the vocals aren't forced/overly aggressive screams or growls. I would love to meet these guys and shake their hands one by one. Hell, I don't drink, but I'd buy them a round on me as well, because 80's thrash metal is my favorite style of music and I never thought a contemporary band would ever be able to replicate the sound of that era. I was wrong. Expect nothing but speedy picking patterns mixed with chunky midpaced power chords and nothing but thrash, thrash, and more thrash! There are ample tempo changes provided to keep things interesting, the song structures are pretty linear and stick to the classic formula, etc. The only aspect that doesn't sound like Kreator are the solos, which have more of an American vibe and range from a slightly melodic Bay Area style to a noisier Slayer sort of approach, but everything else (especially the vocals) sounds dead fucking on like "Extreme Aggression", which is my favorite Kreator record, so I have just become an immense supporter of Avenger of Blood and I defy any fan of late-80's thrash metal to argue that this record doesn't kick ass in every way. A couple of other noteworthy influences are the "Hell Awaits" sounding jams in "Where the Pictures Lie" and "Violent Epiphany", not to mention the mosh worthy instrumental "Intro" that kicks off the fun! Sure, there are some minor musical issues to address, but nothing that's a significant hindrance. From a performance standpoint the drummer ought to work on his timing (especially with the double kicks), and on rare occasion some of the lightly technical guitar rhythms sound choppy, but barely. Other than that they're basically good to go there. Sound-wise the recording is definitely easily listenable, and my complaints are again minor. There's almost no bass presence in the mix, so they should give the bassist more breathing room for sure, and the drums sound rawer than the guitars, so adding some warmth to the percussion to finish polishing off the drumming would be great. For the most part the guitar tone is ridiculously awesome - perfectly crunchy, nice and thick, and totally driving the material 100%. There's a faint dirtiness that's partly responsible for some of the aforementioned choppiness, but that's a small price to pay, so they should stick as close as possible to this guitar tone at all costs (smooth out the lead tone and add some fire there, though). The vocals sound fine, but tweaking the mix to get more bass definition and such would help pull the vocals in against the guitars more, and that'd be cool too. As with classically thrash oriented song titles like "Violent Epiphany" and "Forced to Kill", the lyrics are archetypal thrash: "All is gone it has been foreseen, Certain death by the war machine, Suffocate from a plague unclean, Millions die in a final scream..." It's really too bad the band name sounds so forced, because had the band been called something like Complete Annihilation that would've been way better. But whatever, I'll take what I can get, the music kills on this fucker. So here's the deal: Someone out there who works at a solid label needs to get these fuckers signed, give 'em a modest recording budget, get Ed Repka to do a sweet painting for their album artwork, and unleash their thrash mastery upon mankind. That is the only acceptable outcome. These guys are amazing and anyone who misses true thrash metal should buy this CD immediately. Fuck every trendy pseudo popular band of douchebags out there in all the big magazines lately talking as though they play thrash. No you don't, you fucking filthy, lying posers. But Avenger of Blood does. If the CD packaging didn't look like shit I'd give this an 8/10 in a heartbeat. I am so fucking impressed and elated about this material. I don't know how they've done it, but I back it without fail! Kudos, gentlemen.
[JCM]
Running time - 39:32, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Scent of Death, Where the Pictures Lie, Violent Epiphany, Everlasting Plague]
Avenger of Blood - http://www.avengerofblood.com
