Athwart – Trademark of Hegemony

Throughout the album I could hear various influences ranging from SLAYER to SEPULTURA to KREATOR to VOIVOD and even DEATH which makes for a pretty lethal dose of pure...

Released By : Copro Records

Genre : Brutal Thrash Metal

Links : http://www.athwart.org/


Tracklist:

01.  Intro

02.  God Can’t See

03.  Italian History X

04.  This Is Not Progress

05.  Strain At The Leash

06.  By Blue Ontario’s Shore

07.  Into The Barren desert

08.  Contaminated Blood

09.  Outskirts

10.  The Front

11.  Back To Sarajevo


Well this album was a nice little surprise I must say. Upon preparing to listen to it I noticed the Corpro Records tag on the back cover, a label that does give us some good stuff but most of it is plagued with overly strong Italian accents and bland musicianship. I also took note of the front cove which depicts among other things a dark, gloomy cathedral type door. Then inside the booklet I noticed a female band member.  With all of these things in my mind I had automatically presumed that this would be some sort of bland female fronted gothic metal album but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

ATHWART is actually a kick-ass Italian thrash metal band with a female lead guitarist Giulia Coletti who would shame a lot of the boys in the industry with her technical chops and her penchant for awesome speedy solos. Also versatile vocalist Michele Guerra ( a guy) who throws his voice between SLAYER style brutal thrash vocals to death metal like growls and the occasional black metal inspired wail that can peel the skin right of the back of your neck. Maybe the fact that I went into the album with such low expectations has made it seem better than what it actually is, but I am pretty confident in saying that the album is pretty freakin’ awesome.

Throughout the album I could hear various influences ranging from SLAYER to SEPULTURA to KREATOR to VOIVOD and even DEATH which makes for a pretty lethal dose of pure old-school deathy thrash metal that is uncompromising and never tries to be more than it really is. There are no modern tinges to be found here and nothing added to try and help commercialize the band’s sound, which should hold them in good stead with die-hard metal fans that dislike sellouts. I did manage to pull out a few tracks that I feel people should head straight to in THIS IS NOT PROGRESS, ITALIAN HISTORY X and OUTSKIRTS but the whole album is very listenable and I have no problem recommending it to any fans of brutal and honest deathy thrash metal.

Written By ZeeZee

Rating : 7/10


About Author

 
Categories
Album Reviews
Powerwolf Dominates Atlanta’s Heaven @ The Masquerade with Explosive Performance
Powerwolf Dominates Atlanta’s Heaven @ The Masquerade with Explosive Performance

Powerwolf Dominates Atlanta’s Heaven @ The Masquerade with Explosive Performance

Photo Credit: Myglobalmind/Screaming Digital Productions

The Effect - It Could Have Been You (with Steve Perry)

Butcher Babies Get Vulnerable with Emotionally Charged Single “Sincerity”

Queensryche Guitar Legend Michael Wilton Unveils Solo Debut

The Pineapple Thief – Last To Run (EP) Review

Rock Legend Ricky Warwick Releases Feel-Good Christmas Anthem with Def Leppard and The Cult

RELATED BY

G-TQ58R0YWZE