Kicking off the new year with, Antichrist, a dark thrash band hailing from Sweden. Their latest LP Forbidden World, released late(ish) last year, is full of evil necromancers and fast, hacking slashers. They would remind me of the more evil thrash bands, such as Dark Angel and Slayer with a big influence from Iron Maiden.
The album kicks off with a screaming crescendo and then a blitz of speedy riffs. The album is chock full of these speedy riffs, and yet they manage to keep the monotony down by adding a good amount of mid-tempo and slow riffs. Apart from the fast tracks like ‘Dark Sorcery’ and ‘Militia of Death,’ they add some doomy moments in songs like ‘Necropolis’ and in the instrumental, ‘Minotaur.’ You can hear a lot of their Maiden influence in ‘Minotaur’ as there galloping riffs and harmonies a bound! The song does get a little old after a while, 8 minutes of noodling starting to really grind on one’s attention span.
The production is a bit polished, but not too much as it still sounds pretty raw which totally fits their sound. The vocals sound huge, as if they were recorded in a cathedral. The squelchy yells echo over the songs like a banshee in a canyon. And the guitarists are blazing in this album, there aren’t any tinny riffs that make you have to put your ear up to the speaker to hear them, they’re in your damn face! Big, chunky riffs and shreddy, fiery solos that just claw at your ears!
I’m usually never a fan of the “evil stuff” as most tends to sound monotonous to my ears, but these guys really have some good dynamics to their songs which is something I always like. They’re heavy and dark enough for you evil muthafuckas, and yet they should satisfy those that like musicianship. So definitely go check these guys out!
7.5/10
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