Any band in the late 80s or early 90s whose lyrical stance focused on any form of Christianity became the subject of much ridicule or downright debasement. Believer are one such outfit that released a trio of quality thrash based albums that were as aggressive as most acts of the time. Check out “Extraction From Mortality” or “Sanity Obscure” if you don’t believe me. Faith type lyrics have been derided for years in metal as offensive, inappropriate or even insulting but are nothing compared to some of the material my ears encounter or my eyes pass a glance over in any goregrind, death metal or black metal outfit. No I’m not religious in any way so you may remove that from your mind now.
So onto the music and 16 years on from “Dimensions” Believer still has this tendency to veer off from the norm and “Gabriel” is no different as the sharp guitar sound has a futuristic technical sound that borders Voivod. Opener “Medwton” has a vicious sound and hollow snare as the low level spoken vocals lead to a chunky riff and decent lead break. The song is firmly fixed in 80s technical thrash though the ending is surreal. “A Moment In Prime” continues with another excellent vicious riff before a melodic break brings power and emotion to the song. The solo is yet again first-class as a short acoustic section brings about an almost jazz like feel and some very subtle keys and effects.
The razor sharp guitar tone made me think of Pestilence’s “Consuming Impulse” album as “Stoned” intensified it further but uses a Germanic style vocal line and double bass kick. The bands sense of speed and dynamic dominates as the keys and effects catch you off guard somewhat. The piano sound is weird however and I’ll leave it that. The experimentation increases on “Redshift” as a mild jazz bass line supplies the run up for the caustic riff and some synths blended into it. A very strange song indeed which shows no diminishing in “History Of Decline” which by now made me think this was a thrash sound track to some futuristic but stark movie.
A more accessible approach is adopted on “The Need For Conflict”, being aggressive and simple with a solid beat and Schmier style vocals. This structure appears again on “Shut Out The Sun” but with the added nuance of clean vocals. The multitude of time changes and riff variation is not for the faint hearted but a predominant riff permeates the duration of the track. The acoustic like beginning and clean vocal line of “The Brave” yields to the harsh guitar sound and clean production. Believer has certainly given the listener plenty to think about on “Nonsense Mediated Decay” which spans nine minutes of technical experimentation using church style organs, spoken vocal lines and a progressive song structure. The diversity of the song makes the nine minutes seem momentary. The triad of untitled songs cover a mixture of sounds, voices and effects that sound randomised but you know they are not.
A courageous return to the stage by Believer as “Gabriel” delivers technical yet experimental modern thrash for the open minded.
http://www.myspace.com/believerband
http://www.believerband.net
