乐队列表 Thrash Black Black Anvil Hail Death

It's been about four years since their sophomore album, Triumvirate, which means a ruling body of three people. Since then they've added a second guitarist to their line up, which upgrades the band to a quartet. Their 2008 debut album, Time Insults the Mind, featured melodic shredding alternating with interludes of doom and gloom. Then their 2010 sophomore album, Triumvirate, was a more consistent headbanger with ominous thrashing and some catchy viking black melodies. So will they take advantage of that metallic momentum, to break out with a great thrash black album? What impact will the second guitarist make to their sound?

The three original band members are all listed as being vocalists, but it's not clear who is who. I only detect two distinctively different vocalists and they both portray cartoonish characters. One is grim and sinister, then the other is grim and almost comical. The occasional choruses are blandly at the mid range notes. Still Reborn starts with a mysterious acoustic ditty. Then it breaks out with some slow melodic thrashing, that are accompanied with intricate guitar hooks which are in the style of Scandinavian black metal. The two grim voices alternate lines, one being dark, and the other sounding humorous.

There are two guitarists featured on this release. It's unclear about which one plays lead and who plays the rhythm guitar. There is a lot of melodic shredding, which isn't played too sharply with the higher notes. The rhythm guitar sounds down tuned, dumbed down, and subdued. The lead guitar sometimes plays catchy hooks, like what's prevalent in some Swedish black metal textures. Eventide charges hard with super heavy bass rhythms, in a fast thrasher. The intricate guitar leads sound semi tremolo in texture. The crazy grim voice is very active with maniacal screaming. The drummer hits a lot of intricate drum patterns, to emphasize the melodic thrashing. It's an awesome track and about the best that it gets on this album.

The drummer is fast, hard hitting, and adds some artistic energy with plenty of cymbal crashing. He showcases lots of snare roll melodies, during the more exciting stretches. Sometimes he tries to force in something interesting into the dull parts. The Seven Stars Unseen starts with a boring southern rock style. Then it jumps out with a fast paced thrash ballad, but isn't anything too sensational with the dull musical arrangements. But the drum beats are constantly active and sometimes dictate the pace.

The vocalists and guitarists don't always dominate the main aural spectrum. Sometimes the bass music is fast and thunderous enough to manhandle the band's music. The melodic low to high note bass plucking is usually a dominant component of their compositional structures. Next Level Black starts dull and fast, going with doomy stuff like Electric Wizard. It picks up speed and intensity with heavy rhythms. Then there are slower interludes with old blues styled guitar solos. This 11:36 minute song gets old after about five minutes.

This wasn't a great thrash black album and it wasn't even as good as Triumvirate. It was more like their first album, Time Insults the Mind, with melodic thrash interspersed with doom textures. This release isn't too consistent with the headbanging tracks. About half of this album consists of dull uninspired songs. I wouldn't have known that there were two guitarists present just by listening. The rhythm guitar sounds down tuned and is usually kept at a low note profile. Hail Death takes a step backwards in the songwriting department and they didn't seem to make the most of the additional guitarist.