Artist: Squealer A.D. 
   Title: Confrontation Street
   Label: AFM Records

The name of Squealer A.D. might be a new one but Squealer is not.  The band name change is no forced event due to some commercial enterprise, or by a name sake band, but the bands way of honouring the passing of vocalist Andy Allendorfer or ‘Henner’ as he was known to many, who was sadly robbed of his life after a car accident back in January 2005.

The band took time out to mourn the passing of their dear friend, but now they intend to carry on the legacy left by Henner and carry on with the band, now with former Grip Inc front man Gus Chambers at the helm.

The album itself is one of pure aggression and fortitude and the bands heaviest so far.  The tragedy of the event that the band members felt will leave its mark on you forever.

The album opens up with ‘Black Tongue’ and from the off the pent up frustration of the band is unleashed onto an unexpected world, with Chambers being his usual aggressive self, married together with the fiery guitars of Michael Schiel and Lars Doring adding an even more vicious edge to the track.

The album continues its fearsome assault with the thrash ridden ‘Infacticide’, a track that is as hard hitting as they come. This emphatic pace doesn’t end their fury and continues with ‘Devils Backbone’, another hard hitting assault on the senses.

But my own favourite track on the album has to be ‘Kamikaze Nation’, a track that mixes the bands power-metal past, with the new hardened sound of the band to great effect and is a track that shows what a highly complex voice Chambers has, he sure can mix aggression with melody when the need arises.

‘Punishment of Luxury’ once again carries on where 'Kamikaze Nation' left off, with some outstanding guitar work once again by Schiel.  The pace eases off just a touch with the dark doom metal tones of ‘Eat My Sin’ and ‘Blood Red Halo’, before picking back up with the Slayer like ‘New Sun Rising’, a mix of thunderous double kick drums and full on metal shredding, a headbangers dream.

I’d like to say ‘Left Bleeding (By Love)’ shows the bands more gentle side, but this would be totally out of sorts with this release, it's full on metal once more just as it should be, relentless and unforgiving to the end.

The band go all native and raw on ‘Faith And Fury’, which is probably the most intense track on the album, with Chambers showing his more darker side with a very strong narrative style vocal on this one.

The album closes as it started with a full on onslaught of aggression and heavy bass tones and rounds of not only a great metal album but also a new and hopefully fruitful era for the band. 

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