Hatriot - Heroes of Origin

Title: Heroes of Origin
Artist: Hatriot
Released: 2013                                            RATING: 4.5

The Good: 4.5 might seem a bit much for a work that was released so recently. I would like to defend this, however, by stating that Heroes Of Origin really is one of the best Thrash albums I have ever heard, top-to-bottom. Even the songs I don't care for much are still awesome. The band is led by former Exodus front man Steve Souza, who sounds every bit as venomous and angry as he did when back in the late 80's. The musicality of the record is awesome, with every band member performing at a very high level. While the comparison may be unfair, Hatriot's guitarists manage to sound like a modern-day H-Team, as they shell out riff after tasty riff, not to mention the killer solos. This isn't to imply that they sound like copy-cats, but quite the opposite: their playing just sounds that good. "The Violent Times of My Dark Passenger" is a truly outstanding song in all of its ominous glory, with great lyrics to boot. Other killer tracks include "Globicidal", "Murder American Style", "Blood-Stained Wings", and "Weapons of Class Destruction", though the whole album is great, and every song worth listening to. Again, not trying to eliminate Hatriot's individuality in any way, but the way I see it, Heroes today stands just as strong in comparison to the field as Fabulous Disaster did in the 80's. As with Exodus before them, other bands are doing what Hatriot are doing, just not as well.

The Bad: Flawless is a very strong word, but I have no complaints.

Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence

Title: The Fragile Art of Existence
Artist: Control Denied
Released: 1999                                           RATING: 4/5

The Good: Around the time between Death's Symbolic and The Sound of Perseverance releases, Death mainman Chuck Schuldiner began to tire of the musical confines of Death Metal and, long story short, formed Control Denied to expand his horizons. The sole album released by the band, The Fragile Art of Existence, is a strong effort, to be sure. Schuldiner, who only wrote all the lyrics and plays lead guitar for the album, is joined by Death alums Shannon Hamm, Richard Christie, Steve DiGiorgio, and melodic singer Tim Aymar, all of whom display beyond-impressive skills at what they do. Songs like "Consumed", "Breaking the Broken", "Expect the Unexpected", and "When the Link Becomes Missing" exemplify the album's strong points; its melodic and catchy while still retaining quite a bit of heaviness and a lot of expressiveness. In other words, there is no compromise. What you get out of it depends on your attitude, of course. As far as a Power Metal album goes, a direction the music certainly trends towards, it is very unique. Any fans of progressive metal or Death's later albums should listen to this album.

The Bad: I only have a few problems with this otherwise great album. When listening to and reading the lyrics, they are very distinctly written in Chuck's style. Alhough Tim Aymar does a great job singing, I almost don't feel like the vocals are as sincere, so to speak, comming from him as they would (I imagine)have been from Chuck. The songs were written at almost the same time as those for Perseverance (Hell, some of the songs are said to have been taken from The Fragile Art and 'Death-ized' so that they had enough songs to finish the album), and the influence clearly shows. To put it bluntly, Perseverance has the better songs, and with a identical band sound on the two records, The Fragile Art can come off as a derivative, light-weight, late-period Death album. This, however, is not a fair judgment of this truly great work, the last of a true genius. Be open when listening. It will be worth it.

mETaL.......

Haven't been posting much because I'm looking for more great albums to review/reccomend, and I don't like to recommend too many albums from the same bands if I can help it. Comming back soon with some goodies, though. Keep it metal.