This is a split release of mighty two bands, five songs each delivered to this record. American Sathanas deliver five songs of raw mixture of black and thrash metal with black metal vocals which are a mix of growling and screaming, but you can understand most of what is being sung so that is another plus for the band. I like melodies and some catchy hooks guitars provide and there are some slower songs on this one like pumping ‘Defiled’, songs like ‘Hail Lucifer’ or ‘Jaws of Satan’ are to become your favorites. I can also hear a bit of Venom in Sathanas’ song structures, which is great.
DeathEpoch are hailing from Poland and this band delivers five songs on this record. This band creates dark and almost touchable thick atmosphere with their vision of black/death metal, but they also create eerie sounds with keyboard, samples and electronic which fits perfectly to the song structures like for example in awesome ‘B.D.’ All songs by DeathEpoch on this release are somehow made of initials like for example ‘D.W.’ (personal favorite) or ‘G.O.M.’. Vocals are very deep and very brutal like in death metal rather than black metal. Guitars create some epic melodies and blast beats create brutality with elements of war metal thrown in for good measure.
This is an excellent split release by two underground bands, but I somehow prefer Sathanas side of record more, but that is a matter of personal taste.
Great Master are hailing from Italy, and have been active since 1993 but I must admit I have never heard of them until this album. This is band’s sixth album and it is a concept album about story written by Alexandre Dumas, ‘Count of Montecristo’ and the music is epic and nice, ultra melodic power metal with some symphonic and prog metal touches thrown in for good measure. Atmosphere is different on this album’s 13 songs depending the part of the story where we are currently and what part of the story are we listening. Keyboards and flute only add to already great songwriting thus creating epic verse melodies, choruses full of harmony and some songs just made for pumping your fist in the air and singing along to at gigs, which I am sure are fantastic judging by listening to this album where every detail of the album fits just perfectly into its place with superb vocals, backing vocal harmonies which are important for music such as this. If you are not familiar with the story, go check out this classic novel, it would be my recommendation for you. If I must choose some songs as a highlight for this album it would be ‘Where The Shame Lives’, ‘My Name’ and ‘Final Revenge’. If you love your power metal ultra melodic, concept based and above all with great songwriting check out this album.
Legendary street punks Total Chaos are back with their new studio full length album and it is a blast! There are 12 songs on this beauty and while it is not ferocious as first two albums ‘Pledge Of Defiance’ or ‘Patriotic Shock’ back in the days it blew me away how brutal and harsh this album is. There is trademark harsh vocals by singer Rob Chaos who founded this band in 1989, so next year there will be 35th birthday for these guys. Considering the music, Total Chaos play street punk, mainly fast and strong with some punk rock mid tempo anthems thrown in for good measure like ‘No Peace In The City’, but for me real beauties of this album are fast street punk anthems like ‘Street Punx’, ‘Rise Up’ or ‘I Will Not Break’. This band plays hardcore punk but there are some blistering almost thrash metal influenced guitar solos courtesy of guitarist Shawn Smash, so I think the ideal tour pack for Total Chaos would be The Exploited, The Casualties, Acidez and similar bands. Lyrics deal with war, pollution, staying strong, street life, against nationalism….so all the right themes in the right places. This is not their best album, but I would put it right there above between top three albums after above mentioned first two albums. Great album by legendary band!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 