ASSASSIN - COMBAT CATHEDRAL
LIKE BRASS KNUCKLES TO THE FACE.
Assassin, once pioneers on the German thrash scene was back with their fifth studio release in 2016 and I decided to give it a few spins, even if it was released the same same day as my old favourites Flotsam and Jetsam and their new self titled album. Assassin's career has been lots of ups and downs and this is only their fifth studio album even though their history reaches back to 1983.
Assassin are most known for their brilliant 1987 debut The Upcoming Terror and the band has struggled a bit to live up it ever since. In 2005 Assassin made a comeback with the album The Club which was a major letdown, a terrible album in my opinion so I considered the band to be dead creatively.
So this came as a bit of a surprise even though I don't think it's more than good or average. After the release of 2011's Breaking the Silence Assassin's original vocalist Robert Gonnella had left the band and in stepped Ingo Bajonczak. Robert Gonnella was more of a shouting hardcore screamer compared to Ingo Bajonczaks thrash gruffs. The vocals sounds like they were recorded behind closed doors or something because they are buried quite deep in the mix.
Their new vocalist Ingo sounds a bit like a mixture Chuck Billy of Testament, Tom Angelripper of Sodom and Marco Aro of The Haunted. One could argue that a mix between those bands are also the best way of describing Assassin's sound. Somewhat similar to what the UK Thrashers Onslaught has been doing lately. The production on Combat Cathedral is what I've expected, modern and a bit overcompressed but the band delivers thrash that will feel like brass knuckles to your face. It's grinding and hard hitting thrash that are at times hard to dislike. This is really an album that some of the fans of the genre will absolutely dig and others will think it's too modern or repetitive as many of the songs are somewhat similar in style. I think that Combat Cathedral is a pretty decent addition to the Düsseldorf thrashers catalogue
Rating:
| INFO |
Label: Steamhammer Year: 2016 Country: Germany Duration: 54:16 Tracks: 12 Genre: Thrash Metal Reviewer: Ruthless Rating: 2.5/5 | ||
| TRACKS | LINEUP | |
| Ingo Bajonczak - Vocals Michael Hoffmann - Guitars Jürgen Scholz - Guitars Joachim Kremer - Bass Björn Sondermann - Drums |
No comments:
Post a Comment