Persecutor "Dystopian Conquest" CD

I remember Polish Black/Thrash Metal PERSECUTOR from the time I was active on the Metal Centre webzine. Someone gave me their demos then, and from what I remember I even liked them. Then I lost contact with them until now, when by a strange coincidence it turned out that Krzysiek from the Black Flame Rebellion label, which released the band's second album, lives a few hundred meters away from me. Such a small world, hehe. And to make things more interesting, the famous professor Diovis from the Metalowa Archeologia Muzyczna Institute unknowingly had his fingers in this coincidence. But I will leave this essentially sorcerous issue for another time. Two months ago, after more than ten years since the release of the split with POISONED, the aforementioned PERSECUTOR returned to the game with their second album, "Dystopian Conquest". An album that is very diverse despite its clearly defined musical style. And in places, very unpredictable. There are moments here, or even entire tracks, seemingly incongruous with the rest, where one's eyelids spontaneously raise in a gesture of question "how the hell could they put that here". Well, they could, they did, and I admit that after a few listens it all starts to become clear. I might remind you, PERSECUTOR plays Black/Thrash Metal in a very old-school edition. A bit like BEWITCHED, NOCTURNAL BREED or AURA NOIR. There are a lot of Heavy/Speed ??Metal influences from MOTORHEAD or VENOM albums. And in a song like "Paranoikon" next to the above mentioned, similarities with ZZ TOP will come to mind, of course in a very rough and underground form. But it's not only in terms of style that the band is mixing. There are full of broken and extended guitar passages, and although music experts say that the formula has long since been exhausted, there are moments when you feel like you've heard something, some solution, that no one has invented before. At least a few times I've had that feeling, and my ears have already ground down quite a few records. Do you think that if it's Black/Thrash, the tempo is at least fairly steady? You'll be surprised. If the guitars mix things up a lot, the rhythm section does too. In this matter there's a lot of non-obvious variety too. These mans menaged very well. "Dystopian Conquest" is an album that cannot be said to be clichéd and its value increases with the number of listens, and although it may seem inconsistent at first, I assure you that after some time spent with him together, all the elements will start to fall into place. Just one small note to the band: guys, record more often, because you're good at it and people are hungry for this kind of playing. In the coming year I would like another release from PESRSECUTOR. Maybe even an EP.

Sample: youtube.com/watch?v=70ryyFQc9T4&t=602s