Daredevil 2015
Second installment in Bavarian band’s grinding canon: spot-on and tightly targeted.
It takes some guts but, boiling since their 2009 mini-album, this quintet landed on a decision to release, from now on, only EPs in order to serve their product to the listener in quicker succession. Such a point also allows the group to stay focused and not overstay the clanging welcome of their classic metal tropes bearing the SABBATH imprint on the likes of the unhurried “I Am Atlas” that finds pride in carrying the weight of the riffs.
There’s righteous anger in “Sound Of War,” although Jochen Boellath and Peter Wiesenbacher’s guitars don’t go into overdrive, thus allowing singer Alex Andronikos touch on the bluesy roar before slowing down for the harmonic theme of “Backseat Devil” which threatens to kill the buzz when it gains speed, yet ultimately retains the initial grace. Still, “My Own Sickness” succumbs to repetition and is saved only by six-string vignettes, whereas CHUM cover “Embracing The Eyesore” fails to rival the ensemble’s own melodies, while showing the rhythm section’s danceable might. Not too grand, if alluringly cool.
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