A Trust Betrayed

I don't know anything about this band, beyond what can be found on their MA page. Seriously. The reason I traded something for their full-length was curiosity, combined with someone somewhere mentioning them as the best heavy metal act ever to come from the Emerald Island.

I wasn't let down by my trade. Riffmaster General, in addition to having one of the best semi-humorous names among the traditional heavy metal acts, play pretty interesting, atmospheric heavy metal. Their technical level isn't anything exceptional, but they have an idea or two in their songwriting, and I believe they have achieved what they were aiming for. The eleven heavy rocking songs all create an atmosphere that leaves the listener wanting and waiting for more.

That want, and that waiting, in the end, turn against the album. But not too much.

Every single song on the album is written in a clever way, and every single one of them is dedicated to building up an expecting tension. The instrumental opening, 'The G-Men', gives the album a nice start with a simple riff that develops for two minutes and then turns into the first real track. The first song, 'Bloody Vengeance', keeps building the atmosphere, promising, increasing the tension and making the listener anxiously wait for the big, thrashing explosion in the end of the song, the heavy headbanging moment when every knob gets turned to eleven and the speakers explode... but no, the song leaves the moment hanging in the air, to be taken care of later by the other tracks.

The third track, 'Fear Before the Fall', does the same. The restrained, ominously whispered vocals, the slowish guitars saving the fury for the end of the song, the expecting feeling... and by the fourth track, the listener is already growing frustrated, feeling that his Trust has been Betrayed. But still, the pressure is mounting, the brain looks forward to the incredible flogging earthquake, the safety valves almost let the steam out... and then the fifth track continues the build up...

The only problem A Trust Betrayed has is the incredible way it builds up the tension, how it makes one expect an flabbergasting lashing out, a headbanging moment to end all headbanging moments, the neck-wringing, hair-tearing über-epic thrash-part. And then the moment never comes. Never during the eleven good, tension-increasing tracks does the band cash out what they've been investing in. Never do they release the hounds, push the big red button, or let the boiler explode. The excellent atmosphere they invest so heavily and skillfully in, finds no way to hit the jackpot, the enormous rocket never lifts off.

In the end, the taste the album leaves is like eleven dates with a hot chick. She's got smooth, perfect legs up to her armpits, eager boobs (forced into a bra two sized too small to form the Grand Canyon of cleavages) that seem to invite stares on purpose and almost poke out the gawking eyes with their perky nipples, and a waterline skirt that would show some bush had she not shaved just moments ago. 'Cause, you know, she's certainly only wearing a really skimpy thong, or nothing at all. She almost manages to pop her tits out of her clothes a few times while playing miniature golf, cleans the barbequed pork ribs much too thoroughly with her lucious lips, and gently licks the ice cream cone with her long pink tongue while locking her eyes in yours... and when the moment comes, she says good night and leaves you outside the door with a quick kiss on the cheek and a promise that she'll go bowling with you next week.

This complaint is not as serious as it sounds. The album is very enjoyable in its own, original way. The atmosphere is probably what they wanted to create, in addition to being to an extent the product of the vocalists semi-whispering style. This band can certainly be enjoyed, and The Trust Betrayed is worth buying.

Yeah, the goods are there, but the final gratification is missing. Had Riffmaster General included a proverbial "Moment of Wind and Rain" in the end, the album would have climbed 10 points on the rating scale. As it is, something is missing, and that missing something... well, that's the something that makes a series of good, promising dates a success.