Nope, you can’t extinguish those flames… having been burning since the ancient 1984, the Kirk (Andy & Chris) brothers keeping it alive although they’ve been taking it really easy since the release of the album reviewed here. And it’s not cause they’ve been busy with other projects, no. They didn’t find it necessary to bother their native scene with other musical endeavours, simply cause they found themselves on the very top of it by the end of the-80’s.
The 90’s saw them again sporadically reminding of themselves, leaving the newly-formed currents (death, black, gothic, etc.) to bear some distinct competition (Rotting Christ, Nightfall, Septicflesh). It must have been their relocation to Germany in the late-90’s that had disrupted the creative process… but all good, we have an admirable legacy, soundly revived in 2011 with the compilation, to delve in, focusing on the last so far, and respectively most agonizing chapter from it.
But let’s go back for a short digression; let’s do that and acknowledge the band’s gradual but thoroughly logical transformation that was “Made in Hell” initially, a power/speed/thrash affair which was largely modelled after Venom (check the title again), a naively sloppy but inspired collection of satanic hymns, the latter converted into much more intense, also more contrived speed/thrash on “Merciless Slaughter”, a full-of-surprises saga, from encompassing progressivers (“Legion”) to virtuoso instrumentals (“Moorgle”). “Summon the Dead” introduced more brutal deathy rhythms to the confident thrashy melee, the final result a delightful mix of Kreator, Protector and Messiah, the guys seemingly reaching the pinnacle of their evolution, thus repeating the successful formula on the next two instalments.
With the interest long since shifted away from thrash by the mid-90’s, it would have hardly surprised too many people if the once-leaders of Greek metal had tried something inside the groovy-post-thrashy box… this opus here partially tends to this (no)need, but does it with a fair bit of dignity and defiance. The guys open with a duo of prime blitzkriegers (“Savage Brains”, “Oath Immortal”), setting the tone for another old school thrash/deathy parade, this initial boost nicely complemented by the intimidating semi-shouty death metal vocalist. The groovy flirtations begin with the bouncy “Throne of Pain” and “Neverending Suicide”, but this is still acceptable, not annoying stuff, especially when there are maddening shorters like “Pollution Attack” to shatter the senses in the best manner of mid-period Sepultura. The obligatory more technical excursion (the hectic diverse “Shadows”) is also here, the band retaining the high energy all around, the party reaching goofy crossover dimensions on the closing “Frei Statt Bayern”… a hymn over which the Bayern Munchen management pondered seriously as to whether to replace the emblematic football team anthem with that one. No creative crisis witnessed on this flaming front, the few cosmetic alterations well implemented, the band functioning fully as a tight organized unit, including behind the mike where the departed Thomas Trampouras has been ably replaced by the one-time showing Flo Gebhard. The Kirk brothers have nothing to be ashamed of; they didn’t let the numetal vogues ruin their ironclad, also fiery, facade, merely acknowledging their dominant status with a couple of noisier groovy tunes. They never fell for those traps, but they haven’t fallen for any others, either, not feeling tempted to produce anything new for a sizeable period of time... the drum guru Nick Samios (also Memorain, Drama Noir, Afterblood, etc.) has been seen jamming with them recently… a probable rehearsal for more inflammatory classic death/thrash exploits?
Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
