You know you can rely on this record label. They always put out killer albums by good bands and I took this album based on the record label alone, without having heard of this band before. Now on album number two, Thornafire from Chile formed in 1998 and spout their blasphemous Anti-Christian death metal from deep in the southern hemisphere. Taking note of their fellow South American’s Krisiun and some Pentagram (Chl) and a southern US state known as Florida, Thornafire display death metal the original way without the need for endless blast beats and beeps and squeaks.
‘Hacia La Ruina Del Agartha’ (they sing in their native language) opens this sophomore release with the intent and aggression of men possessed. There are a few strange moments on the drums and time changes in general, sometimes going in and out of straight time, but this all adds to the mix. This does sound like they are trying a bit too hard to produce their sound, sometimes coming across as stretching the tightrope a little bit. But as the album continues, it all starts to make sense. You cannot take away their love for Morbid Angel and similar bands; there are melodic guitar sweeps, ribcage shattering rhythms and general punishing death metal. I do like the interludes and riffs during ‘Sucubación’, this has your head nodding in appreciation, and perhaps stands out for me on this album. Ok, there are indeed no blastbeats, but you have a healthy contingent of double bass drum hammering from Juan Pablo Donoso. This is an album that has been mixed well also, often a trait with this genre, but this CD gives the bass of Alexis Muñoz (also Vocals) a well-deserved crack at the whip in terms of volume. ‘Confesión’ gets your interest perked back up and those glorious riffs keep on coming, whilst the chord structures sound like those used in black metal, they are fitting and create an air of atmosphere, before you get a battering when the remainder of the tune kicks in. All in all, these arrangements are well structured and show many an influence. I cannot help noticing as ‘Vortex Deconstruction’ continues, there are more and more blackened death metal coming out of the woodwork, a good thing don’t get me wrong, and I do like the way this is integrated with the traditional style and ‘Por El Delirio’ is the perfect example.
Thornafire put their take on the death metal sound down quite precisely and in simple terms whilst getting their message across in a wonderfully mixed piece of musical blasphemy. No it is not going to set the world on fire, but the album is definitely worth buying for you lovers of the Floridian (for the riffs and slower parts) and South American (for the tormented vocals and speed) death metal genre. Thornafire have come up with a good album that deserves its place in the old school death metal cavalcade of releases this year.
http://www.myspace.com/thornafire
http://www.thornafire.cl/
http://www.ibexmoonrecords.com/
