Well, it took me some time to get used to this album and instead of concluding that it was completely a waste of a release. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't utter crap. The music combined with the lyrics seemed to have somehow fit into place more so than just listening to the music itself. Their topics didn't really grab my attention it was like I said the music meshed well with the lyrics. Some songs started out sounding good and catchy then again it seems as though the entire album now has a lot of key moments. It seems like you can only catch this release if you listen to the songs and lyrics at the same time. Otherwise you'll come to my first conclusion which was that it was completely worthless.

Long time member Gary Holt was on rhythm and lead guitars as well as Lee Altus. They made some leads that weren't that noteworthy though it wasn't a complete waste. I just thought that they should've put more time into the riffs so that you cannot only differentiate whose lead is whose but to also admire the talent that was exhibited here. I couldn't get myself into those leads really not that they were bad but they just needed to be a better mix between the two lead guitarists. Rob Dukes does a decent job on vocals spewing forth Gary Holt's spiteful lyrics. Not only does he have yelling and screaming but also has some clean vox on one song. He replaced Steve "Zetro" Souza who left the band in 2004 and Paul Baloff who passed away in 2002 from a stroke that he endured. The lyrics are actually well put together. The band sings about the death, anti-Christianity, violence, war, etc.

The guitars are tuned down some plus they didn't give up their thrash roots I don't think on any of their past releases (though I've only heard a little of their previous works). They didn't sell out changing their style of music just to sell records like Metallica did (as an example). Definitely some key moments can be heard here. Though I think that some of their tempos and rhythms didn't really grasp me. The reason is because some of the music didn't seem to fit. Yes a little bit of clean tone guitar work but not much at all really. So their variety within each song was decent but what wasn't decent was that some songs seemed to drag along going nowhere. Some of the solo guitar work was a little bit too much. Both Gary and Lee did a good job on the leads but they weren't completely astonishing. I've only heard this album and 'Impact Is Imminent' (1990) so I can't dive into their complete discography to really compare older or now newer releases. In conclusion, I think that overall this release goes back into what I started out saying: it wasn't utter crap though not the best thrash release that I've heard.

Rating: 6½ (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
12/21/2008 11:25