E-Force are a creation of ex-Voivod bassist/vocalist Eric Forrest (also in Project: Failing Flesh). The band's debut album 'Evil Forces' came out almost five years ago, and they already have a sophomore one out, too.

Mr. Forrest's enlistment in Voivod can be heard in E-Force's music, but still E-Force are so much different. 'Evil Forces' is an instrumental thrash march before the storm called 'Satanic Rituals', the song that totally deserves its title! Evil sounding thrash metal of the yore still lives, the song brings Testament to my mind for those ghoulish melodies. 'Mayhem' takes a trip to German's thrash metal legacy, sounding pretty much like Destruction, only much better than some later Destruction stuff. The band surely can pen some heavy yet melodic thrash metal songs. 'Forest of the Impaled' waves the flag of evil thrash metal with such conviction, that listener can only but raise horns and worship, and the song includes a bass solo! 'Germ Warfare' is another brain driller in vein of Destruction. I think Eric's voice is also cause for this, because his throat-ripping shriek vocals do sound a lot like Schmier's.

Godflesh/Killing Joke style 'Belief' is the first let-down. The song just plods on without much hooks, but does offer a breather for a listener nonetheless. 'Psychopath' kicks in higher gear but refinement of the earlier thrashers is gone. 'Disorder' starts with a Motörhead style bass and goes into Ministry territory. 'Crypto-Sporidium' brings back the evil thrash elements, but suffers from same languor which wasn't there before 'Belief'. 'Scarring' is a catchier piece and manages to restore some of the power the album's first part possesses. 'Global Warning' feels very Voivod-esque, the era when Eric was in the band. All in all the album is bipartite; good ol' thrashing and more modern elements. I personally like more of the first mentioned, but saying the second half of the album is bad is not true, because it isn't. It's just not so catchy or interesting.

Soundwise this is good, because it's heavy and non-polished, pretty metallic in cold way. Therefore it is also full, sometimes a tad packed. Mr. Forrest's bass is sometimes distorted, I believe, and his more human vocals he also do are damn individual. Some of the lyrics are great, as they manage to upraise atmosphere of the songs (e.g. 'Satanic Rituals', 'Forest of the Impaled'), just like a few bits of synths and samples. Booklet's artwork looks awesome, like a computer game gfx or something like that, but no lame 3D stuff.

All in all, E-Force have delivered an angry and heavy slab of thrashing metal, that is partly rooted to the 1980s, but also has more modern edge to it. Think of thrash metal mixed with Ministry's 'Psalm 69' (1992), Killing Joke and Godflesh style stuff. Therefore this album is pretty unique in my book (just like Project: Failing Flesh are, in their own way). Definitely well done, if the mixture is for your liking.

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
03/26/2008 18:12