Released by: MY KINGDOM MUSIC OUT NOW!!
Style: Death Thrash
Links: http://www.myspace.com/saratanband
Tracklist:
01 .Extinguishing The Hope
02 .Antireligion Pt.I
03 .Dead Inside
04 .My Demise…
05 .Perfect Adonai
06 .Pray For The Rest
07 .Destroy Yourself
08 .Crave Suicide
09 .Antireligion Pt. II
The first interesting thing I noticed when I started reading the promo documentation that came with this album was that the band was from Poland. This got me thinking how many other Polish metal bands I knew about and there really wasn’t many. The ones that I could think of were VADER, ACID DRINKERS, DECAPITATED and of course BEHEMOTH. I’m sure there are many others but that’s all I could think of off the top of my head. So, before I even started listening to the new album from SARATAN I was already thinking about what sound they would have and was expecting another extreme death metal band. Boy was I in for a shock!
The music on ANTIRELIGION is still of the death metal mould, but has more in common with extreme thrash metal and the best way I could describe what I heard is a cross between ARISE era SEPULTURA and THE BLACKENING era MACHINE HEAD. Consequently these are two of my all time favorite albums and surely two of the most important albums in the long and winding history of metal music in general. O.K so it doesn’t quite have the impact and raw energy of ARISE and it certainly doesn’t have the melodic class of THE BLACKENING, but what ANTIRELIGION does do is take the base elements that made these two classic albums so good and uses them as a base to build its own unique sound upon.
There’s also a few Arabic influences intertwined throughout some of the songs which is especially noticeable in the intro of opening track EXTINGUISHING THE HOPE, a great album starter that almost hints at influences from HARDCORE too. DEAD INSIDE reminded a lot of the MACHINE HEAD tune DEATH CHURCH, complete with slow, brooding chorus and crazy guitar squeals. CRAVE SUICIDE is an all-out extreme thrash metal assault on the ears that really helps solidify the sound the band has tried to achieve.
In case you can’t tell from the tone of this review, ANTIRELIGION really impressed me. Especially because o wasn’t expecting much, so then when it turned out to be album that reminded me of two of the best albums ever written how could I not be impressed. Any fans of MACHINE HEAD and early day SEPULTURA really need to have a listen to this one, as do any metal fans looking for a new band to get behind. Seriously good stuff indeed!
Written by Zeezee
Ratings Zeezee 9/10
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