Somehow this neat five-tracker wound up at the bottom of my to-do list, and has remained there for what in retrospect is too damn long. It’s been a busy couple of months with almost 100 album reviews alone going up in May and now that things are quietening down somewhat, it seems the time to raid my inbox and polish off those once-detested-though-gradually-coming-to-begrudgingly-accept MP3 files. The positive thing about the big record labels going digital is that now the little boys are following suit, and not only does it save the unsigned band on a budget a small fortune, but it saves me a combination of shelf space and the occasional guilt pang as I chuck out the worst of the bunch.
Well Godslave certainly don’t come into that latter description and this is one of the rarer occasions where I really do wish it came as a nicely packaged CD which I could place with my other more cherished self releases. After a stressful 2 hours of waiting….and waiting for the delayed Megabus this gave me a much needed thrash fix that got me theoretically warmed up for one of the biggest thrash gigs of the year. A rather creepy introduction throws a real curveball; initially having no idea what to expect from Godslave this had me waiting for some ferocious black metal guitars and keyboards a-plenty but I am proved wrong as I’m instead met with some initial monstrous chugging that pulls into a brutal edged thrash attack.
This certainly doesn’t come into your boys chillin’ at the skate park kind of thrash category that is often seen today, but rather this is a deadly serious offering that mixes in elements of black and death metal that will please the more extreme thrasher. There’s a Swedish death vibe to ‘Dead Reckoning’ that brings to mind Unleashed, while the vocals are delivered with a hint of a rasp that sounds rather like Mille Petrozza caught in a mosh with John Tardy.
‘Wings Of Wrath’ is a real highlight here and it comes at you like a truck full of bricks overturning on the M1. This has some punchy riffage and the kind of energy that I feel is lacking from some of their peers. It’s easy to listen to with an accessible edge and having only formed in 2007, this shows great promise for the future assuming they can deliver the goods to the same standard on future efforts.
http://www.godslave.de
http://www.myspace.com/godslaveband
