Fallen

Be prepared for what is one of the most blistering fucking metal albums to cross your speakers as Summon deliver an unequivocally crushing blast of hellfire tempered metal in their latest platter of musical blasphemy, Fallen. This record is complete aural war as Summon blast through eleven ripping tracks that recall the finest elements of Morbid Angel, Slayer and Satyricon, wrapping each of these legendary influences into a relentlessly evil sound that is nothing short of remarkable. Frontman Xaphan shreds through some fretboard igniting leads that are fueled by the eternal fires of Hell on tracks like Blood Red Skies and Upon Wings Of Chaos that show a remarkable technical ability coupled with an assertive, venomous attack. Summon speed through songs with a crippling onslaught that utterly decimates every other band that attempts this style. Josh Moore has the ability to deliver blasts which are voraciously battering, yielding no quarter nor mercy in this group’s hyperspeed assault. Every track on this record simply slays, rooted in a ferocious thunder issued by bassist Necromodeus that break your fucking neck from banging your head so hard. Summon possess a punishingly raw, abrasive sound that is best described by the title of one of the record’s homage to old school black metal - Loud As Hell, Fast As Fuck. Joe Petagano offers an excellent fucking cover that illustrates the sound of the band perfectly. Standout tracks on the album include the driving, thrashing “Mindrot, the blazing Upon Wings Of Chaos and the insanely vehement title track. Hailz to the new kings, Summon have conjured up the most diabolically compelling musical demon of its kind in 2005.

Lansing, Michigan's Summon have been playing a brutal as fuck amalgamam of death, black and thrash metal for some time now without appropriate recognition. 2003's "And the Blood Runs Black" (produced by the legendary James Murphy and put out on the respected Moribund label) was proof that while not getting the attention they deserve for their face ripping compositions, there was a spike in recognition. Now we have the latest offering, entitled "Fallen"

I'll say right off the bat that this album easily holds a place in my top 10 for this year. There is not one weak link on this album and it never tires me out. "Blood Red Skies" starts with a Hate Eternal-like intro before morphing into a bastard of a black metal song which then crushes your skull with an absolutely monstorous break down (not like some shitty mallcore breakdown, think more of a groove section). "Upon Wings of Chaos" thrashes about with some obvious death metal influences as do many songs on the album. One thing I noticed is that this album is much thrashier than its predecessor. Some of the blinding death metal speed is still there but Summon opts for more of a thrash feel on this one.

With the thrash thing being stated, I want to talk about the sledgehammer that is "Loud as Hell, Fast as Fuck". This one has old school thrash written all over it, down to the lyrics talking about drinking, their band's volume, and finally "fuck your band". This song should be pitted against Usurper's "Kill for Metal" to determine the most metal song of the year. Even if you don't like any death metal or black metal, you will love "Loud as Hell, Fast as Fuck". Easily the best song on the album.

To conclude, BUY THIS!!! In the current metal climate filled with Gothenburg clones, Mallcore whores, and Cradle wannabes, it's a joy to hear something like this. Just a fucking awesome record.

The US stationed band Summon has played their Black/Death/Speed metal since 1991, they have already about 10 releases out, from which the last one Fallen is their fifth full-lenght album. Fallen kicks ass straight from the very first notes with it’s hard as hell attitude. The album’s 11 tracks and over 34 minutes are an excellent combination of 80’s trash/speed metal and modern insanely fast death metal, spiced up with exceptionally good black metal vocals – You’ve gotta like this.

The sound policy on the album is a successful one, although the trigging of the drums can be heard. After hearing Fallen, the drummer Josh Moore rises close to the top on my list of best extreme metal drummers, that convincing and furious the playing is. The riffs on Fallen vary from modern death metal to 80’s trash/speed metal in a successful way. Nothing very innovative can be heard from the guitars, but they go all the way in a classy and merciless way. The vocals hit me from the very first line. They’re are mostly sung in a black metal style, but a couple of times the vocalist wanders of to 80’s style trash/speed metal expression and in overall the vocals are excellent. The vocals are a combination of Carpathian forest and Immortal at their best and occasionally also Absu’s In the eyes of joldanach comes to my mind, so it’s a guaranteed spine shivering screaming. The playing is throughout the album very vivid and precise enough. A bit of repeating can be heard on the tracks on the album, but this didn’t slow down the fierceness and the overall drive on the album in any way. The attitude of Summon is also on the right track. The band concentrates on music and some resemblance to Aura noir’s “Piss off” attitude came to my mind while reading the bands biography – No compromising.

Fallen is an excellent album. I scheduled my first session for listening to Fallen to a couple of minutes but it was easily drawn to 30 minutes and after that the album has enjoyed a lot of time in my CD-player. The first 5000 copies of the album come with a bonus-DVD which holds first in the history of metal the whole album in Dolby digital 5.1 sound and 3 videos.

Summon’s Fallen is definitely worth a check if you like harsh and furious music and the whole content of the album can be precisely described with the title of track 10 – Loud as hell, Fast as fuck.

This review is translated from a Finnish review I did to a Finnish E-zine www.stalkermusic.com.

Summon has unleashed a rather damaging platter of blackend thrash with "Fallen." The production is crisp and clear, something perhaps unexpected with a Moribund Cult release, but it adds rather than detracts to the album. Riffwise, the focus is almsot exclusively thrash-based, with some tremolo parts here and there ala Angelcorpse. Drumming is both capable and aggressive, recalling much of the Brazilian 80s black/thrash scene. The vocals are the most "black" element, as it were; delivering the lyrics in a suitably corrosive midrange cackle. As for negatives, the only really noticable shortcoming would be lack of innovation, but that hardly detracts from the enjoyment. Overall, "Fallen" recalls both Coguelmo's unhinged roster as well as later works from Immortal. A solid release recommended for those who want to hear their thrash with some balls and aggression.