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Thrash being one of my favourite genres at the moment, I was keen to get my teeth into this album, and in the first track my thirst was well and truly quenched. The opening title track is the obvious choice as the opener to this album, as it is probably the best song here. Pure thrash riffs dominate the bulk of this track, and there are some really nicely written guitar sections.
Throughout the album there are points of real vision in the guitar activity, and some equally pummelling sections of rhythm provides plenty of head-banging opportunity. After listening to the tracks I had come to the conclusion that this band sounds at their best at high speed, where the drums and guitars are able to really attack the listener. When this is the case, there is some very promising thrash material to be found, but unfortunately this is let down a bit when the pace slows down a bit. This is not to knock the variety of the album, because it deserves respect for putting some variety in from song to song. I don’t have a problem with the fact that some of the songs take a more mid-paced speed with longer structures and passages, but I feel these could have been done while keeping a bit more interest, because sometimes these moments hold up the flow of the album a bit. The slower riffs don’t have the same sort of excitement or originality.
The vocals are a raspy growl, which actually goes quite well with the punchy rhythms, although they do eliminate the possibility of another avenue for melody, thus putting more emphasis on the guitars to hold the main tunes and melodic ideas. For the most part the guitars hold up perfectly well, but perhaps in the slower sections the songs suffer a bit due to lack of vocal variety.
Although the good points on this album are very enjoyable, there are also moments where the interest wanes a bit, and I didn’t feel that some of the other tracks were of the same calibre as the intense opening track. The tracks are best at their thrashiest, and the longer more drawn out songs are therefore a bit less captivating. Athanator are clearly a capable band with firm thrash influences that emerge regularly in their more exciting riffs, and all in all this album is a good listen with some great moments. The pace is broken up slightly by some of the less inspired tracks, but there is plenty here for the listener to get into, and it is an interesting collection of songs.
| Tracklist |
| 1. Earth Of Blood |
| 2. Childrens Of Darkness |
| 3. Perverse Paradise |
| 4. Even The Angels Fall |
| 5. Race Of Cain |
| 6. A Death In A Hole |
| 7. Walk Down The Dark |
| 8. Rage |
| 9. The Savior Of God |
| 10. The Cold Hour Before Dawn |
| 11. Without Choice |
| 12. Metabolic Damage |
| 13. Schedule To Die |
| 14. Healing By The Blood |
| 15. Frightened By The Bombs |
: 53.52
| Buy other Athanator albums |
