|
Artist: Paincraze |
|
|
Though Paincraze may hail
from Sweden, their sound is predominantly straight from the Bay Area of
San Francisco. The band do however put their own unique spin on the
classic sound of bands like Exodus and Forbidden and the result is an
album that, for the most part, has both intricate depth and the riffs to
blow your head clean off.
Opener ‘Napalm’ is a no-nonsense, straight ahead thrash song with some excellent soloing which sets the tone for the album nicely and it is followed by the excellent one-two punch of ‘Black Day’ and ‘Vow of Silence’, which mix some frantic thrashing with some infectiously melodic choruses, giving the album some extra depth and proof that this is an album with more than just one layer to get your teeth into. The album does temporarily dip in quality half-way through, however. The songs ‘Hurt’, ‘No More’ and ‘I’m Grateful’ are instantly forgettable filler and sound rushed, with lyrics that don’t really move beyond basic rhyme scheming (the beginning of ‘No More’) or ones that simply just don’t seem to fit (the lines “now I am here, where the fuck did you go?” from ‘Hurt’ and “thank you so much!” being angrily screamed from the top of the singer’s lungs in ‘I’m Grateful’ will never cease to make me chuckle). The band seem to wake up from this momentary slumber at the end of the record however, and penultimate track ‘So Be It’ starts off with some blistering guitar work before proceeding to rhythmically bash your head in for the next four minutes with everything played at breakneck speed before album closer and title track ‘Hellbound’ kicks in and finishes the job off with nearly eight minutes of solid riffing. All in all, this is a good album that although may have one-third but has two-thirds damn good heavy metal played the old-fashioned way and that can only be a good thing. Best Tracks – ‘Black Day’, ‘Vow Of Silence’ Review by: Adam G |
|
|
Tracklisting:
01.
Napalm
|
|
|
All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated. |
|