Featured review by:
UG Team, on october 24, 2007
1 of 6 people found this review helpful
Sound: Andy Sneap is very quickly turning into the industry standard and the guy to go to for a big, heavy metal production. Thus, the production on this album is quite an oomph-fest. Everything about it absolutely reeks in-your-crushed-face-heavy, and it works wonders. It's a contemporary, modern production and it's sonically very similar to their previous release, “Shovel Headed Kill Machine”. Sneap never seems to craft a poor production, and there is nothing to complain about in regards to the sound on this. // 8
Lyrics and Singing: The tone for this album is set in the first line sung on the album -- “Rise up and revolt, overthrow the government”. Good, now that's established, let's move on. It's political to the bone, some of the lines are insanely catchy, such as “the dead no longer have a cross to bear”, or the entire chorus to “Children Of A Worthless God” (no bonus points for guessing the topic on that one. In short, the lyrics deal with religion and political dissent. The lyrics are as stated, catchy as hell and given the chosen subjects, they pull it off damn well. // 7
Impression: Here's the twist -- anyone with their ear close to the scene has heard of Gary Holt's big promises regarding this being the album that'll redefine thrash as a genre and whatnot. Is this the case? No. Any album that's more or less pure thrash and contains songs closing in on 10 minutes should be looked upon with suspicion. For a song that long to work and not get dull, you need dynamics, which I'm afraid that this album lacks. All that being said -- the album does get off to a kick-ass start. The ominous intro leading into “Riot Act” is killer. I first dismissed “Riot Act” as a pretty dull thrasher upon hearing it on their MySpace, but within the context of the album, it works exactly as a thrash opener should -- it beats your skull in. “Funeral Hymn” continues the riot (pun intended) with it's plucked/tapped intro and Dukes' vocals spewing dissent over anything and everyone. And then, after another song we reach the halfway mark track-wise, where things start to go south, and the formula is exhausted. The ideas simply sound too similar, or are stretched too far, and the necessary dynamics aren't present. Or when the ideas are there, they're not arranged in a good way. The album is nearly an hour long, and as far as I'm concerned, it's about 20-25 minutes too long. The closing five tracks aren't cringeworthy by any means, but do there's a distinct lack of interesting sections, leads, riffs and so on. As a whole -- I'm afraid the album falls a bit flat on it's arse. // 5
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