When given the opportunity to review a band whose members are called Tormentor, Satanic, Infernal and Odin you know it’s going to be interesting…. This is Desaster‘s 11th release of their ‘Traditional Blackened Thrash Metal’ (their words) – not sure it needs categorising. It’s thrash. And the music these Germans make is very pleasantly heavy.
After the haunting intro, ‘Proclamation in Shadows’ is heavy, angry and exactly as they say on the tin….traditional thrash. ‘End of Tyranny’ with its’ Whiplash (the band not the Tallica song) style intro has another great 80’s sound and ‘The Clerics Arcanum’ continues on with the old school production still a joy to my ears with the hollow tom sound and the wonderful shred lead guitar sound.
‘Haunting Siren’ explodes with pulsing blast beats and quickly becomes one of the picks of the album for me – a 7 minute thrash classic in the making and after the equally good ‘Damnatio Ad Bestias’ we get to ‘Conquer and Contaminate’ which at times moves into Black Metal territory including a classic solo too (not to everyone’s taste ha ha).
The excellent ‘The Denial’ carrying on with some mighty riffing, a horns up kind of chorus and blast beats moves into the albums’ title track – a 3 minute smack of everything that’s good about the band. Album closer ‘At the Eclipse of Blades’ is a 7 minute more melodic paced way to finish things off. Are they likely to reinvent the metal scene? No. As it’s their 11th album are they likely to care? Probably not. They might like to doff their metal cap in no uncertain terms to all the best bits of the thrash scene of the mid to late 1980’s but they also remind me of why that classic thrash sound is utterly timeless. Enjoy!
Released 8th April 2016
They might like to doff their metal cap in no uncertain terms to all the best bits of the thrash scene of the mid to late 1980’s but they also remind me of why that classic thrash sound is utterly timeless.
