Artist: Holy Moses 
   Title: Agony Of Death
   Label: SPV Records

In the late eighties the Heavy Metal and Glam Rock scenes of the time were getting all the press attention, that is until out of San Francisco’s Bay Area came the phenomenon known as Thrash/Speed Metal and the likes of Testament, Slayer and of course Metallica started a genre that still ignites the passion of many a headbanger.  But the whole Thrash Metal scene has become a whole new monster in Europe and South America where the Metalheads come out in force for live shows and Metal festivals.

One band that was at the forefront of the European Thrash scene were Germany’s Holy Moses who led by the forceful and angst filled vocal prowess of Sabina Classen led were others followed. Now in 2008 the band release their twelfth album ‘Agony Of Death’ and are again gonna shake the very foundations with their speed, aggression and power once more, as vocalist Classen says about the album “Its without frills and full in the face” and believe me that’s as fair a description of the album as there could be. 

With Classen at the helm the band are never going to be putting out an album of ballads or fill it will gentle melodies is full force high octane metal at its most dangerous. The album also boasts a hatful of special guest artists from the Thrash and Metal worlds with the likes of Ralph Santolla, Schmier, Karlos Medina and Trevor Peres to name but a few.

It's full force metal all the way on this one as things get underway in typical Holy Moses fashion with ‘Imagination’.  This is 6.07 minutes of pure metal mayhem with Classen as anger-filled and passionate as ever, together with Michael Henkel and guest guitarist Janos Murri (Darkside, Demolition) just spewing out some punishing metal riffs. 

The album is a relentless attack on the senses as the no holds barred metal barrage keeps going with monstrous speed driven tracks like ‘Alienation’, 'World In Darkness’ and the daddy of them all ‘Pseudohalluzination’. 

This is an all out Thrash album and cannot be described as anything else and is going to be massive in Europe and the South America’s as they just love the band.  The album is going to come in not just one or two formats but three each different a jewel case version, the diehard version with no intros or outro’s just the basic metal.  The digipak version, which will include bonus tracks plus special feature between the tracks, and finally the double vinyl version of the full twelve tracks. 

All versions I’m sure will end up in the fans hands I’m sure.

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