The Swedish Thrasher have returned for their third offering. The band formed in 2015 and released their debut album Extinct in 2016, before in 2018 they brought us Hades Rising and now is the time for Apokalyps.
The 9 track album spans approximately 36 minutes of balls-out Thrash that will set hearts racing as the adrenaline dump happens. This happens after a brief period of wailing guitars and feedback, then the eruption happens and you don’t recover from it.
The high octane chugging sounds a treat and even with a slightly more relaxed chorus, you know that the havoc is going to return. When that chaos lands it sounds huge and is so satisfying. The drums and guitars hardly let up throughout the album, even with guitar solos that may present as calmer, they soon develop into fully face-melting stunners and the drums crush.
It won’t take long for your neck to start feeling the pace, even if you are the hardiest of headbangers and you will soon be gasping for breath even I the circle pit you are charging around is only made up by yourself.
Sometimes in Thrash based music, things can become quite samey, but what Defiatory manage to do is make blistering paced music that carries so much more than just pace. The musical and vocal inputs are fantastic and carry the sound to that next level and help Apokalyps an album that you can happily listen to on repeat and not start to become tiring.
Having added some of a more melodic aspect to their approach along with a darker edge, the journey through war and the destruction caused by it is one that you need to be strapped in for.
When I reviewed Hades Rising I made comment about the fact that Defiatory could become as big as some of the Big 4. Has Apokalyps helped this to become a reality? Well, It certainly doesn’t harm the band’s rise and whilst it may be a slightly different sound to their usual stuff, it’s still as punishingly brilliant as you could want from anything in the Thrash arena.
This third album by Defiatory just shows that a little diversity in a genre shouldn’t detract from the utter devastation that high-quality Thrash music causes, and damn, Apokalyps hits like a wrecking ball.
Ed Ford
Tracklist
- Apocalypse
- Only War
- Belligerent and Hostile
- Into the Unknown
- No Place to Hide
- Knives
- Let Them Burn
- Assassinate
- Counting Bones
Online
https://www.facebook.com/defiatory/
https://defiatoryblacklion.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/blacklionrecordsswe/