I thought the passing trend for labels signing up thrash bands had gone. Like a two day old newspaper, it served it’s purpose but unless you have some particular attachment it’s gone straight in the recycle bin and won’t be seen again in the mainstream for another fifteen years. There will always be a flavour of the month, right now it looks to have receded even further back with a teased hair and spandex clad NWOBHM resurgence…so in a sense I was surprised to discover this German gem had been picked up by Metal Blade four years after I reviewed their last album on little-known label Pure Steel. Somehow the news of their signing slipped me by, but anyway.
Unlike the recent crop of bands that have garnered success; Evile, Bonded By Blood, Gama Bomb, Fueled By Fire, Violator…Fatal Embrace don’t quite have the same youthful advantage on their side. I don’t mean to say they are a bunch of old codgers who aught to be settled down with a nice cup of Horlicks and comfy pair of slippers in-front of the television, but there is a kind of energy and spark with some (though not all) of the aforementioned bands that, sad to say, many of the old guard lost a long time ago. Efforts in recent years from Kreator, Sodom, Annihilator and Exodus have been, at worst, a complete embarrassment, and at best, not a patch on the stuff from the 80’s. Fatal Embrace are in that case a happy medium. They formed in 1993 and now on full-length number four it’s safe to say they are an experienced band. They are not being “ironically retro.” There is no gimmick. This is 80’s thrash metal in its purest form and unlike some of the heavyweights who honestly should have given up years ago this doesn’t sound tired and dull.
‘The Last Prayer’ puts it’s hands together and eases us in to things gently with the almost obligatory slow and reflective intro passage, before blowing straight into the relentless, scything axe-attack that is ‘Wake The Dead.’ It’s a high-octane, fast and noisy affair complete with pounding drums, screeching solos and Arayan yells. There’s no shortage of memorable hooks here and ‘Nothing To Regret’ has a nice slice of melody to it. What I particularly like about this album is that Fatal Embrace are not afraid to use melodies, to slow things down here and there to give that bit of atmosphere rather than blasting away at a ridiculous speed from start to end. ‘Empires Of Humanity’ is one that is rather atmospheric; the bell chimes and we are taken in with a clean, moody guitar melody that is interspersed with those chimes lending it a rather evil and perhaps even haunting sound. During the bridge things predictably speed up and the dark, clean guitars give way to thrashy ones that will have you headbanging or air-guitaring. There’s a dark and menacing tone to ‘Haunting Metal’ as well and this one really goes on the prowl, while ‘In Your Face’ is as aggressive and mean as you’d probably expect given the title.
It’s obvious what these guys are all about. This is genuine old school thrash metal to bang your head to; it’s nothing original but they do it rather well and it’s not hard to see why Metal Blade signed them up.
http://www.myspace.com/fatalembracemetalberlin
