Artist: Apollyon
Title: S/T
Type: E.P.
Label: Self Release

When a press release promises “the most mind blowing and loudest…” blah, blah, blah it sets alarm bells ringing, especially as it tends to be those ones that actually blow my mind the least. Having said that, I suppose Mr. PR guy wouldn’t be doing his job right if he didn’t make those kind of over-enthusiastic statements…so anyway. With Apollyon being a Greek word meaning destroyer, I would like to think I’m in for something a bit, well, destructive and while this is not to be confused with accomplished black metal musician of the same name, it does offer something fairly close to what I was expecting.

Kicking off with ‘Victory’ I’m introduced to some solid, thrash riffage that’s fast paced and sits nicely with the aggressive drumwork that batters the eardrums relentlessly. There’s a modern slant to these tracks and is anything but derivative 80’s thrash metal, even if parts of ‘Prolapse’ really have me drawing up a Slayer comparison. Vocally also this is atypical of the style and the Bill Steer snarl really shows off some diverse influence with this lot; thankfully in this case proving that modern thrash doesn’t necessarily mean grunty hardcore vocals. There’s little variation, but on the bright side they are at least consistent. Title track ‘Apollyon’ evokes elements of black metal as a raspy scream that Dani Filth would be proud of opens up into a relentless drum barrage before dropping into a steady rhythm that matches the pace and the tone of the E.P. There’s some nice solo guitar work towards the end of this one, and also on ‘Emotionless Genocide’ although these don’t play a particularly leading role in the music.

‘Prolapse’ has a really fierce rhythm that gets the hair swinging, and there’s a death metal slant to the ferocious and technical-edged downpicking. Overall this is a competent E.P. that blends a range of styles well and shows what this band are capable of. The production and packaging is not too shabby; it’s professionally done and does the record justice. My only complaint is that in places the music does sound a bit thin and being a three piece these could likely benefit from a second guitar player. A good effort.

http://www.myspace.com/apollyonsteel

Luci Herbert

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