Sure to Be Pure

This band fall into the category of acts (Forbidden, Massacra, Invocator, Anthrax, Overkill, Flotsam & Jetsam, etc.) who decided to play by the 90’s numetal rules, not as isolated-contribution artists, but as ones with a more serious intention towards this current. In other words, these acts released a string of modern metal (read post-thrash, groove, alternative, grunge, etc.) albums, some (Massacra, Overkill) managing to produce pretty decent results for the most part, others (Invocator, Forbidden) messing it up on the subsequent attempts after nailing it the first time around.

It became quite obvious that the hearts and souls of the latter outfits were simply not with the new music vogues, rendering their mid/late-90’s offerings to mere footnotes from the “botched experiments” department. The Mercyless team produced the cold… sorry, cool adaptation slab “C.O.L.D.”, moving away from the attractive intricate retro death/thrash histrionics unleashed on their first two sagas; but instead of leaving the groove/post-thrash confines right after, they decided to reside in their snare some more, welcoming the new millennium dawn with another bow at those nearing-expiration-date sounds.

If the “cold” album was a lively, sometimes on-the-verge-of-thrash affair, with venerable but not really emulative nods at the ruling vogues, this outing here is a full-on groove attack exacerbated to the max by Max Otero's very shouty quarrelsome hardcore/deathly vocals. On top of that his feats behind the mike come heavily synthesized at times, creating harsh unwelcoming atmosphere which is hard to prick by the frequent balladic/lyrical insertions, those also accompanied by disputable, not very expressive cleaner vocals and swathes of stylish lead guitar wizardry, that last ingredient the major but hardly deserving saviour. The thrashcore insurgence of “Don't Want to See” sounds uninspired and awkward as its raucous energetic pretentions have no match whatsoever on the rest, the band more interested in exploring the nervy jumpy groove pool, said interest carrying on unabated elsewhere, partly abandoned on the final “Jail of Flesh”, a cumbersome plodding excursion around the balladic realms, a protracted yawn-inducing closure to this otherwise harsh cold album.

That was some way to scare away the returning bouts of old school valour that started popping up in the late-90’s, bracing for a full-fledged conquest of the scene at the dawn of the new millennium… which makes the whole situation even more exasperating provided that the resistance against the classic metal renaissance was amplified by such works, by bands who were a firm part of it once upon a time. Instead of grabbing the opportunity and putting on the old attire promptly, these outfits kept treading on the numetal path, delineating their old fanbase even further, and embarrassing themselves with such trite rehashed creations. I’m not sure what kind of purity the album-titled alludes to; this is an additional doze of contamination, one that would make the cleansing process even harder, if such a process got scheduled at all. In 2000 it was still premature to write off the groove/post-thrash wave as a foregone conclusion with Pantera, Machine Head and their clones still a fairly legitimate presence on the scene… but an old schooler was at least bound to elicit some excitement seeing the classic metal reconquista looming on the horizon… on the album reviewed here there isn’t a single vestige to indicate that the guys were even remotely considering shaking off their numetal stupor.

Otero returned a decade later, heading an entirely new line-up, fully sober this time, embarking on a wholesome trip down memory lane, the old school lustre of the comeback stint “Unholy Black Splendor” more oriented towards the death metal realm, with nothing even distantly related to the band’s ill-fated groovy flirtations. Two more instalments followed suit, Otero intent on being a more regular contributor to the metal scene, which consolidated the retro death metal stance that the man has chosen, also paying tribute to past luminaries (Venom, Motorhead, Possessed, Hellhammer) with the “Sovereign Evil” EP… with a hidden track winking at Pantera’s “Walk” at the end… ha ha, kidding here! This page has been closed… purity only comes once as a temptation in this lifetime.

This band has really fallen from grace! I can remember their excellent first two albums, which totally blew me away. Then they took some time off, got some new members and started producing some real crap...

What can I really say about this album? It's not really thrash, except that it does have a rough vocal style that is similar to Jacob Hanson's work with Invocator (which is a fucking excellent modern thrash band). It's definately NOT death metal anymore. So what is it? It kind of reminds me of a groovy hardcore type mess. They have downtuned guitars that chug away kind of like a new metal band, and a drummer that seems afraid to really pick up the pace and thrash something out. The keyboards are better incorporated on here, but they still sound cheesey, like on "Cold."

The main problem I have with this album is the lack of character the songs seem to have. I can listen to the whole album through and nothing really grabs me. The lyrics are not very interesting either, and I think that there was something that got lost in the translation that makes them seem utterly ridiculous (the first two albums, though being classics in my opinion, had this problem as well). There isn't any melodies that grab me, no really heavy parts, just stupid sounding parts. I only paid $7 for this from The End Records, but I still feel I wasted my cash. Oh yeah, and what's with the lame-ass cover art and the stupified logo?! At least "Cold" looked kind of cool!