Flames "Last Prophecy" CD

I absolutely adore the first three records these guys crafted. The first one is an amazing barrage of mostly speed metal, the second is part speed part thrash, the third is a breathtaking display of extreme thrash mastery. Ladies and gentlemen, one of Greece's finest cultural exports; Flames.
This album follows largely in the vein of the third album, only less ambitious. The guitars are, as always, very precise although a bit more melodic. The vocals are the same caveman noises we all know and love. The drummer can play like his life is on the line, and he is quite talented. And for the bass, can't say it stands out.
My main gripe with this is that it's a more stripped down version of the previous album, it trades the already existing intensity and ferocity for questionable melodic choices and at times boring mid-paced sections and sometimes whole songs. The tracks which preserve the aforementioned barbarity the most would mainly be "Deathra", "Destiny of Hate", and "Silo". The rest is broadly speaking hit or miss, at least that's my experience. On about half of the songs I was just begging for the speed to be turned up a notch. At times it seemed as if they were almost afraid to do so. Maybe they were going for a more commercial sound? I don't know, that's not for me to decide.
In sum, when this album is at its best it can almost stand up to the previous effort and when it's at its worst it's not offensively bad; just bland and sometimes too "groove-oriented" for my tastes. Though for 1989 much better could have been done. Oh well..!

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...