It might not be a surprise looking at the title of this album to discover that conceptually it deals with war. Certainly if you looked at the futuristic destruction on the cover there would be little doubt left. This is my first dabbling with this Finnish band who have released two albums and a few demos before it and it was a solid and pretty enjoyable first encounter. Apparently when they started out in 2004 they were pretty much a thrash band but with some progress and the odd line up change now they are more in the extreme cross bridge between death and black and they play in a tight and punishing style that if it were a war would leave little in the way of prisoners.
With a prelude to the march of boots, we first encounter heavy and crushing drums rolling in before the gruff and uncompromising vocal growl of singer Psycho joins the melee! Guitars and samples lay their weight to it all and we know that by first song proper ‘The Solution Called War’ this is building up to a mighty explosion. This comes following a sample from old Dubya who lets face it has been pretty redundant since Ministry put him out to seed. It’s a hefty and gnarly tumult as the song properly piles in and the singer adds a touch of throaty rasps to it all proving he can vary his range. Surprisingly there are keyboards tinkling away in the background, rather subtle in the mix; at first you don’t really think they belong there but they do add other dimensions to the pummelling might. As we plough into ‘Awakening Of A Discordant Machine’ the keys are more noticeable and I am reminded a bit of a clash between Behemoth and Zyklon here and there is a good melody fired out behind the ever flattening drum blasts and even room for a bit of guitar soloing. ‘Swallowed By Defeat’ allows a breather in the form of a maudlin instrumental although one is aware that at the half way point there is plenty of time to turn the tables and march on towards victory.
One thing very much in the favour of this album is that it is one that’s impossible not to get involved in neck wrenching and fist slamming as it literally bombs away. The drumming really is full on and very skilfully executed without sounding all artificial in the process. Unlike many a warmonger these Finns don’t make the mistake of staging an invasion and outstaying their welcome getting the campaign wrapped up within the ¾ of and hour mark, mind you at this point it is debatable whether they left anything standing anyway. So in conclusion a good album, maybe not groundbreaking but nonetheless a band worth checking out. War what is it good for eh, say it again?
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