Artist: Antichrist
Title: Forbidden World
Type: Album
Label: High Roller Records

Sweden’s Antichrist are a bit of a cult band from what I can gather, this is their debut full length release, something I was surprised with as their logo has changed from my dusty cassette tape demos I have. Thrash is key to this music, but it is on the raw end of the scale, with a certain echo to the vocals, yep, once again, early US/EU inspired thrash, well what else would you expect from one of Fenriz’s bands of the week? The thing that can be taken to heart is the comforting presence and tirade of raw energy that is somewhat controlled, the sound is actually slightly polished enabling the guitar solos to be heard this time compared to their demo tapes, something that is needed for a larger label release. The opener ‘Dark Sorcery’ and the follow up ‘Victims of the Blade’ is a wonderfully executed piece of thrash, with a punk edge or first wave thrash influence from the 80’s.

What makes this stand out from the other “kvlt” wannabie bands is that these guys can actually play their instruments and can easily string together an arrangement, something that is quite rare when bands are considered “kvlt”. ‘Forbidden World’ is rather a welcoming release, something that could have been described as ground breaking if released over 25 years ago, it has the same presence as say the ‘Bonded by Blood’ and ‘Show No Mercy’ albums in terms of recorded sound but obviously I cannot compare directly to those stellar releases without an air of reservation. Antichrist keep the momentum going with numerous flashes of guitar madness and it would be fair to say that any fans of Nekromantheon cannot really go wrong with Antichrist, you know where the evil slayer is at, and this is a beast of an album.

Two thirds of the band also reside in Witchgrave, and both bands will be on hand at the Live Evil Festival in London during October this year, something that cannot be missed and judging by the recorded output of Antichrist, this is a monolithic debut release, not by any means original, but by all means effective, raw and certainly one of thrash’s future hopes, especially in the Scandinavian scene.

http://www.hrrecords.de/high_roller/sites/bands.php

Paul Maddison

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