Suicidal Angels - Divide And Conquer review
Band: | Suicidal Angels |
Album: | Divide And Conquer |
Style: | Thrash metal |
Release date: | January 2014 |
01. Marching Over Blood
02. Seed Of Evil
03. Divide And Conquer
04. Control The Twisted Mind
05. In The Grave
06. Terror Is My Scream
07. Pit Of Snakes
08. Kneel To The Gun
09. Lost Dignity
10. White Wizard
By now, I'm sure many of you have long been sick of this whole thrash revivalist thing. I don't blame you, as much as I love some popular offenders; these younger bands are more bent on re-writing the standard albums than the bands who wrote them in the first place. If modern thrash isn't your scene, feel free to keep scrolling.
If you hadn't already guessed, Divide And Conquer is stuffed with high-speed riffing, high-speed drumming, and high-speed soloing - thrash, just like mom used to make (if your mom was Gary Holt). All of this gets stretched out a bit too much, but that's why this is another cookie-cutter new-age thrash album and not an unexpected masterpiece. To set the record straight before I continue, Divide And Conquer is enjoyable, if you can handle bland-ish thrash; it is simply nothing more. It doesn't suck, basically.
"Seed Of Evil" sounds like a lost track from ?And Justice For All, with just a dash of Sodom and early-90s Megadeth for that extra kick. "Control The Twisted Mind" is largely Kreator-esque, with some Testament thrown in. And so the rest of the album unfolds. The old classics laid down a blueprint; Suicidal Angels follow it to a T. All of your old favorites lurk just around the corner.
By the third song, the jig is thoroughly up. No bones about it, Divide And Conquer is yet another repeat of a repeat of a repeat. It is impossible to begrudge them their hero worship during the strongest tracks, but on an album with as many pitfalls as peaks, the act wears thin. The album is by no means a bad one, and every now and again a grey wall of thrash in the background serves the listener's purposes just as well as Coma Of Souls or Practice What You Preach. Still, some people ("psychos," let's call them) enjoy a bit of variety in their music, and if that be yer hankerin' ye might get thyself elsewhere and indulge in some Voivod or something.
So maybe Suicidal Angels aren't bringing anything special or new to the table, which is something you could say about 90% of 21st-century thrash bands. You could hand the title track to any Municipal Waste or Warbringer right off the street and chances are it wouldn't sound much different. That doesn't necessarily make Divide And Conquer a waste of time, because there are a couple of noteworthy tracks, and it never hurts to have a little more thrash in your life. Know, however, that if you decide not to pull up a toadstool and wonder at the wisdom of Suicidal Angels, you will not sacrifice much.
Rating breakdown
Performance: | 9 |
Songwriting: | 7 |
Originality: | 4 |
Production: | 8 |
| Written on 19.03.2014 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct. |
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