Список групп Grind Death Slave Zero Exempt from All Tolerance

Exempt from All Tolerance is Slave Zero’s second album. I must confess that I did not hear about the first one but now that I spent a full month playing this record I’m way more than curious.

Hailing from Ireland and formed since 2000, the band displays some rare qualities that show both craftsmanship and a talent for songwriting. Death / Thrash bands are usually not my cup of tea because they either lean too much on the Thrash Metal side or too much on the Death Metal side giving birth to songs that often feel half-assed because you just don't know where to put them. Therefore I had my doubts about this band. I could even add that the first listen did nothing to me. I was even tempted to bash it right away but I refrained the urge and played it some more.

And yes, that album is a grower. The first time I played the record, I was a bit thrown off-balance because I felt that the songs were just mere arrangements of erratic and random riffs with a triple vocal aggression. It couldn't have been further away from the truth.

The truth is that musically these guys know how to write songs that are catchy as hell. Yes, they’re ridden with many riffs and multiple time signatures but they're arranged brilliantly. Try to think of early Slayer music (Reign in Blood) mixed with harmonies/soli from Heartwork-ear Carcass and you should grasp a pretty good picture of Slave Zero’s music. The triple vocal aggression that I mentioned earlier is earblowing and just exhilarating. Thrash Metal vocals a la Araya on speed with both a Death Metal vibe and a Grindcore feel. And it's only one guy managing the whole thing, and damn... he's good and he spews his rage on all tracks never backing down just one bit. Something definitely outstanding and making this album worth buying.

It probably has to do with the lyrics of Exempt from All Tolerance that deal with our fucked-up society and how fucked-up we end up ourselves following such standards. There's some intrinsic rage about reviewing all our mistakes and it shows in the vocals much like you’d expect from Napalm Death.

So what? You have outstanding music with thrashing riffing, excellent soli and effort put in songwriting, you do have too an outstanding vocal performance and lyrics that are worth checkling out... all in all it shouldn't take you much time to figure out that if you’re into bands like Slayer, Carcass and anything that deals with excellence you ought to go buy this record because there is no way it won't grow up on you the way it grew up on me.