Band:	Titans Eve
Album:	Life Apocalypse
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	July 2012

01. Overcast
02. Destined To Die
03. Road To Ruin
04. The Abyss
05. Descension
06. Life Apocalypse
07. A Wound That Never Heals
08. Hollow Gods
09. Divided We Fall
10. Frozen In Time
11. The Void

Last year we saw the release of Titans Eve debut, The Divine Equal. Despite being a pretty impressive piece of work for a debut, the amount of borrowed sounds seemed to foreshadow what might turn out to be a pretty stagnant, derivative band. Well, damn my pessimism, this is a nice, although be it pretty small step forward for Titans Eve.

For those of you who didn't check out the last one, Titans Eve play a sort of Bay Area Thrash meets Gothenburg melodeath type of metal. Picture the thrash-ness of Testament fused with the melodic parts of Arch Enemy, dashed with a slight trace of metalcore from time to time. This combination isn't earth shaking. It's not the mark of some innovative new crossroads for metal, it's just a thoroughly satisfying thrash metal sound.

This band was awesome right out of the gates with their debut, which makes Life Apocalypse a conflicting disappointment in some aspects. A person hearing Life Apocalypse and The Divine Equal side-by-side with no previous knowledge of the band would probably give this one a much higher rating. It's thicker, crisper, much more aggressive, and shows Titans Eve as a band with their own sound, rather than a band imitating other bands. It sounds like they've been professionals at this for ages. From an unbiased standpoint, it makes this a much more consistent album, but it lacks that raw, youthful charm that was once there. That being said, this band has held on to their integrity, honing their sound. Aside from a few cool little instrumental bits, and some improvement on the riff front, you're basically seeing the same band as before. Frankly, that's just fine. Hearing a solid, albeit not very forward-thinking record from a great band is far more satisfying than watching them attempt some overly-ambitious failure.

Above everything, this is a melodic, catchy thrash release with a lot of great riffs. Context doesn't really matter all that much when presented with an album as solid as Life Apocalypse.