In the Name of the Father

DEATH/THRASH METAL. Holy shit, I like death metal, and I like thrash metal, so when you combine the two I must just CRAP MY PANTS IN GLEE. Except not because this is pretty rote death/thrash, you know, exactly the sort of thing you'd expect from Pavement music, the label who turned their preference for a hot dog every day to a steak once a week into a cavalcade of monotonous chugging and mid-'90s death metal represses that no one was asking for. Really, as soon as I see that an album was released on Pavement it's practically a bullet to its head right there.

I'll give Altar one thing: they're better than the average Pavement slave. They play basic death/thrash metal with lots of grooving strummed riffs and shouting vocals mixed with blasting, Deicide-inspired death metal. It's not amazing, but it's relatively easy to listen to without falling asleep. It's not like Relentless or something similarly bland and stale. However, it is death/thrash and pretty much nothing else; it has no real depth to speak of or hidden talents. What you hear on the first listen is what you're going to hear on any subsequent listen.

The production is good and clean and heavy and the guitar tone is standardly fierce. The riffing is pretty catchy a lot of the time if nothing deeply original, and the vocals are executed with enough conviction to make the rather amateurish lyrics seem less absurd. As I said, it's nothing to get excited over, but I'm hardly going to complain about an album that sets its goals pretty low and manages to attain them. It's above average for modern death/thrash, and while it does slip into repetition and predictability sometimes, it's predictable in a good way, like a familiar blanket. Except my blanket never talked about how much it hates Christianity.

So yeah, I guess you can get this or not and you won't be really missing anything. If you just want another decent metal album, you can't really go wrong with this one, since it can be found stupidly cheap just about anywhere. If you can get it for like $6 or under, I'd say go for it. Not amazing but nowhere near as bad as a lot of other, more well-known material out there.

There's no fucking way I could have guessed Altar was around in the 80's because this album sounds like polished run of the mill Pavement bullshit, which it is. In the Name of the Father is THE flattest, most insipid death inspired thrash I've come across in years of being ripped off by mass graves, er..labels like Pavement (I've learned to steer clear). I've never heard thrash played so lifelessly, I mean it's the apex of all the headbanging that metal brings us, it's called THRASH for heavens sake, and Altar somehow screws this seamless formula up. They make it fucking boring. On with it...

First the vocals. Sheer mediocrity. This guy is no vocalist. He is talking with a 'metal' emphasis at the end of each line. Give me aggression, give me some classic operatic theatrics, at least give me a voice reminds me of Fred Durst a little less. But no, hardcore tough guy recitations is all you get. The music is the other equally horrendous feature of this album which has two horrendous features, vocals and music. Oh wait..yeah, it fully sucks. Dull, flat pointless riffs with even less creative and more formulaic blast beating. So fucking ineffective. You've never heard blast beats abused and so pointlessly to this extent. This music is DULL. What really puts this showcase of mediocracy over the top is the insanely juvenile, look at us metal dudes utilization of satanism and tough guy shiznit. Check this,

I cum all over your face

Then take you from behind

Reign in Blood from Slayer

is blasting through my mind.

Are these not the most retarded lyrics you've ever heard? If you say no then you're a goddamn liar, because just the other day I read in the Encycopedia Britannica that these are the most retarded lyrics ever composed.

This is the absolute shittiest rendition of thrash I've ever heard, and likely in existence, though my sources only include a fondness of quality metal, an ability to differentiate between good and crap metal, and a staggering ability to identify pussy metal when I hear it. There are no positive qualities to this album. Just stick to non-pussies Slayer for a good dose of Satanic thrash.

Goddamn, this album is bad-f##@n-ass! Perfectly blending thrash and death metal, leaning more toward the death metal end, ALTAR pretty much decimates the listener. This is one of the few times where, upon hearing one album by a band, I immediately sought out the rest of their material. I got "Red Harvest" in the mail this morning (good ole ebay) and I can't wait to have my brains blasted out of my ears later today.

Anyway, back to the album. Thanks to the good folks at Metal Archives, I learned that Altar was mad at some religious group for preventing one of their concerts from turning Holland's youth into satanists. And boy, Altar didn't take that well. The first track, "Holy Mask," opens up with a hilarious clip from Conan the Barbarian, and then lights right into those stupid christian motherfuckers. This reminds me a bit of Dew-Scented, a bit of Vader, even a bit of Grave, or maybe that's just me trying to liken new found heroes to old favorites. Anyway, the vocals are harsh, but only veer into deathgrunts and gremlinscreams from time to time. It sounds a lot like the dude from Dew-Scented, in fact. The songs here have a lot more variation, though. There are blastbeats, double bass nuttiness, thrash riffs, some great mid-paced death metal moments, and winding solos - and that's all in the first song! And those damn Calvinists can deny their lust all they want, but Altar knows what's up.

The rest of the tracks each have something special, but few live up to the excellence of "Holy Mask" in my opinion. The best thing about "Spunk" is the intro (it reminds me of that wonderfully dirty pic on the CD tray - a moneyshot from the Father!), songs 6, 7, and 10 also don't stick in my mind too well. I guess I should just go with to the highlights...

"God Damn You." Indeed. Repetitive but infectious chorus, makes you want to take a hammer to the nearest clergy member.

"I Spit Black Bile on You." Whew, if I had to pick a second favorite this would definitely be it. A huge amount of changes in the song, blastbeats, and excellent lyrics - Holland strikes again! I'm not quite sure when Holland struck the first time mind you, but I'm sure Altar had something to do with it.

"Walhalla Express" Great tune, sounds like a train of death metal coming forth to humiliate you with various obscene sexual acts whilst listening to Slayer. This reminds me - there is an excellent shoutout to porn in the liner notes, basically appreciating various XXX stars for keeping the guitarist's hands quick. Ha ha ha.

So if you are a fan of thrash/death crossover music and enjoy a good stomping in the crotch area, pick this one up. Metal archives people know their shit, when they say something is good they usually aren't messing around (unless they are talking about power or black metal, but that is just personal preference). In the Name of Altar - get this album!

Altar was getting more mellow. Their blasphemous anger was being redirected to societal criticism. We can thank the local Christian political party in Altar's hometown; in a bid for popularity among the Christian voters they prevented an Altar show, in spite of the fact Altar had moved away from the blasphemous lyrics. Now Altar is back, revitalized, and really pissed off. To quote the song 'God damn you': "You asked for it - you've done it again / You made me loose my control"!

From the moment the openingssample from Conan the Barbarian ends (the part where Conan kills a priest for his robe nearing the temple) the face-smashing brutality is let loose, and there isn't a moment of doubt towards whom this truly hatefull death metal is directed. It's aggressive, fast, and unrelenting, yet just varied enough to keep interest untill the last song. In a time where I thought a band needed keyboards to keep the music interesting Altar showed me the error of my ways. I had no idea of there was such a wide spectrum of agressive riffs untill I heard them symbollically smashing, pummeling and rending Christians apart. The experience from their extensive touring did them well.

Some of the lyrics on here (mostly the more sociocritical ones) still come across a bit awkward, being very down-to-earth, but it does feel a bit more heart-felt oddly enough. One of the elements that characterised Altar's sound were the vocals which were grunted screams instead of screamed grunts. Now they seem to be bellowed out at the top of his lungs with all of the vocalist's might.

This is highly recommended for people who like brutal agressive deathmetal which leans more towards thrash like mid-era Gorefest and Blo.Torch than towards guttural deathmetal like Demilich and Morbid Angel.

This is the stuff that I would classify as death thrash. Not to be confused with thrash death like Dew-Scented, which is based more on thrash. That said, this is more based on death metal. Ok that out of the way, this is a wicked headbanging cd.

The singing reminds me a bit of Cryptopsy(whisper supremacy on), though just a bit. The guitars lay down some good riffs and there is a few good solos. The bass is lost though, as its mostly unnoticable. The drums are very apparent though, with lots of double bass through the verses & chorus and some blast beats thrown in. The cd opens with Holy Mask which is the death side of the band. God Damn You is up next, which is one the thrashier songs and is one of the best songs on the cd. This is a headbanger, from the opening UHHHH grunt to the riffs, though the song does tend to get a bit repeptitive by the end. The next couple songs are of the death metal variety and when you get to track 5, I Spit Black Bile On You, it has a very cool intro. I can't describe it really, but it just has a really cool evil sounding riff. The rest of the cd is mostly the same as the songs I've mentioned.

Overall some may feel this is death metal with no thrash at all. I feel as if some of the songs are thrashy and maybes its just because after listening to Immolation or Disavowed, this just isn't quite the same. Its probably up the listener to decide, but either way, its a good cd and whatever you call it, it will have you banging your head. Best tracks: God Damn You, I Spit Black Bile On You, Hate Scenario.