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Minotaur > God May Show You Mercy...We Will Not > Reviews
Minotaur - God May Show You Mercy...We Will Not

The poor man's Kreator strikes back - 65%

autothrall, February 11th, 2010

How do you feel about Kreator? Not the modern Kreator, but the old school, barbaric violence of Endless Pain and Pleasure to Kill. How you answer this question will determined your response to the latest album from Germans Minotaur. If you answered 'nay', move along because there is nothing for you to hear here. If you answered in the positive, you will probably enjoy this.

Now, Minotaur are no simple ripoffs of that other band, because they've been around for almost as long themselves. And where Kreator has moved on through various phases of sound, Minotaur has remained largely the same: blunt, brutal thrash metal which would sooner beat you up and throw you into a pile of trash cans in a back alley than attempt to impress you with sheer musicality. You won't find much different here than on, say, their Power of Darkness LP from 1988. Though the writing is primitive, tracks like "Rather Die", "Princess of Hell" and "Soulless" are sure to sate the veins of the diehard legions who venerate Pleasure to Kill, Sentence of Death and Obsessed by Cruelty.

The mix of the record is appropriately lo-fi, a nice throwback to the sounds of those early 80s efforts. Andi's vocals create a Mille-like rasp and the guitars have the meaty old tone to them. The leads are wild and used more to effect than to impress. Occasionally you've got to dig through a few mediocre riffs to get to the better parts of each track, and I found a few of the tracks like "Armegiddo" and "Damager" weaker than the rest. The album certainly succeeds in the nostalgic department, in conjuring a sound and time treasured by many thrashers. However, it is not something I will likely break out again, instead I'd rather just listen to Power of Darkness (or Kreator).

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Exercise in redundancy - 60%

gk, April 21st, 2009

Minotaur formed in 1983 pretty much with the first wave of Thrash bands that was breaking big all over the world in the early part of the 80s. Somehow though, the band never did manage to break out and they remained relatively unknown. This is my first taste of the band and God May Show You Mercy…We Will Not is only the band’s second album in over twenty five years of existence.

Minotaur are pretty much your typical left over from the 80s thrash scene. Vulcano were occupying this space last month with a re-issue of one of their more recent albums and this month its Minotaur continuing the case for the great thrash revival. Unfortunately, pretty much like that Vulcano album God May Show You Mercy… is an exercise is competent but wholly unremarkable thrash. The band’s press release calls them a mix of Dark Angel and Possessed and for once that’s pretty much hitting the nail on the head. Unfortunately, the band doesn’t have the power of Dark Angel or the manic energy of Possessed that could have pushed this album into essential territory. Instead, this entire album is wrapped in an atmosphere of competence. The riffs are fast and aggressive thrash but nothing we haven’t heard before, the drumming is straight from the 80s school of thrash and it’s only the vocals which are more like rabid snarls that actually stand out.

I’d mention some stand out tracks but unfortunately, nothing really sticks in my head. It’s all good, workmanlike thrash metal that would be okay to listen to in the background if you’re calling a bunch of friends over for a few beers but on its own, listening to this is a bit redundant. This album has all been done before and honestly done much better in the 80s.
Minotaur sounds like a bunch of old friends getting back together and playing the music they love and if you like thrash you shouldn’t have anything to complain about. At the same time, on God May Show You Mercy… there just isn’t much to praise

Originally written for http://www.kvltsite.com

Change? Fuck change! - 75%

DGYDP, March 21st, 2009

Minotaur is one of those long-forgotten underground thrash bands from the 80s, that enjoyed a small regional success, but was quickly lost among the thousands of other similar bands of the period. With the recent resurgence of thrash, many of such bands have now reformed and released new albums, with varying degrees of quality. Many have adapted their style to the current trends and styles, but Minotaur has simply copy-pasted their old sound into the 21st century. The only thing that has changed is the production, which is now considerably better.

The guitars are destructive, aggressive riff-based thrash metal. Little room is left for lead playing, although it is still prevalent. The core of vicious riffs is solid and satisfying, but not on the same level as other contemporaries. The same could be said for their 80s material, which is probably the main reason why they never broke through. The solo's are sort of just there, not attracting too much attention or doing spectacular tricks. Drumming and bass were also handled well, but once again without anything truly exceptional.

What really characterizes this band are the vocals: screechy high-pitched snarls that sometimes come closer to black metal, an extremer version of early black/thrash bands such as Sodom. All in all this is a very solid release that fans of extreme thrash will surely enjoy. Still, Minotaur lacks that tiny bit "extra" to be a first-rate band and might therefore be doomed to be lost once again among many other contemporaries.