Destruction Comes

Christian metal, it's a topic that will elicit strong reactions among metal fans, either one way or the other. As an example, a friend of mine just about goes into a stupor if you just place the words "christian" and "metal" too close to each other in a sentence. Me, on the other hand, I actually don't care too much about it, a good jam is a good jam. And good jams were aplenty in the christian branch of metal, the early works of Mortification, Deliverance, Horde and Believer are all pretty cool albums in my opinion. Among these illustrious names we also find the subjects of this review here, the controversial Vengeance Rising.

The thing I like the most on this album is the savage way the band delivers their thrash metal. The riffing comes straight out of the Slayer and Dark Angel school of guitar molestation and speed through the raucous songs as if the devil himself is chasing the band to the end of the album. The tempo is held high and tense for most of the songs, and drummer Chris Hyde hammers his parts out in admirable fashion without too many unnecessary frills. The gruff vocals of main man Roger Martinez are seemingly delivered in a veritable frenzy, spitting out the words in machine gun fashion sometimes, giving the already volatile thrash metal a hardcore punk edge, adding some extra bite to the already frantic music. His vocals almost touch on hysterics at times, and in these parts he reminds me of Necrophagia's Killjoy now and then. The guitar leads are well executed, bringing a bit of balance to the high octane thrash metal. Thanks to these the music at times gets an Agent Steel and even Rocky George-era Suicidal Tendencies vibe injected that suits the band very well. In the second half of the album, Martinez and Hyde (the line up on this recording) loosen the accelerator more often, bringing a somewhat more controlled approach to the table. This works well too after the onslaught of the first half, and it lands them in the territory of bands like Body Count or Biohazard, albeit in a thrashier way.

It's not all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows though. The production lacks body because of the really flat sounding drums and the guitars certainly could have used more bottom. I mentioned above that on the second part of the album the tempo decreases, and while that goes well for tracks like "Thanatos", the album closer is simply a yawn-fest that could be lethal if you listen to it more than twice in a row, with its dreamy keyboards and spoken vocals. Just skip this one, as you should do with its predecessor "Hyde Under Pressure". That one is just Martinez egging his drummer on. Funny for one or two listens, but in the end it is one of those S.O.D./M.O.D. type "What's That Noise?" type of shenanigans that don't really add anything to the rest of the album.

In later years the name Vengeance Rising would become extremely controversial (even though they always had an "edge" to them) with Martinez disavowing his faith to become either an atheist or satanist (depending on who you ask apparently). That one of the leading lights of the religious metal scene had taken such a step caused quite the stink, as you can imagine. Always nice to see that the soap opera that metal music can be is not just limited to the secular scene, isn't it?

Time to conclude this one by putting it like this: if you're into frantic thrash metal like Dark Angel and the early works of Num Skull, Devastation (TX) and even Macabre, this one should be of interest to you. What you do with the religious angle of the band is completely up to you. If you are a metal fan of faith you probably already know these guys, and you are well aware of what to expect. If you are one of those who root for the other team, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by ignoring this album. And if you're like me: a good jam is a good jam.