I've known the band's name for years. I always thought that their trade must be stupidly humorous porngrind, played by some teenage boys. But no, as all my assumptions provided to be wrong. Now that I've got the taste of Virgin Snatch (no pun intended), I've learned that the guys are in their thirties. Oh I see it, it's us guys in thirty-something, that are after... You know what! And they play modern thrash metal with a twist. Well, there's always something new to learn.

'Act of Grace' is this Polish band's, who started back in 2001, fourth full length album to date. This incarnation of the band features vocalist Zielony (Anal Stench, ex-Death Sea), guitarists Grysik (Anal Stench, ex-Death Sea), and Hiro (Sceptic, Dies Irae etc.), bass player Novy (e.g. ex-Vader, ex-Behemoth, ex-Devilyn) and drummer Jacko. It's easy to expect death metal, but the guys need something else sometimes I guess. One would also expect great musicianships and that's what we get. It's just fantastic work all-around, really enjoyable listening! They really add more dimensions even to straighter parts. The vocals are magnificent job. Variety of growls, throat vocals, and clean singing styles, is big. Most notable clean styles are quite similar to Nevermore's Warrel Dane and Testament's Chuck Billy. Generally, every guy seem to give their everything here, also energy and vibe-wise.

The music is modern heavy, groovy and blasting thrash metal with near-death edge to it at times. Modern "blunt" riffing meets old school thrash riffs. There're also some technical moments to be adored. The title track opens the album with flirting bass line and soon truly ripping guitars and damn loud and punchy drums enter the picture. The band names Testament as their biggest influence and it is easy to conform with that. A bloody rolling thrash metal song with loads of parts. 'Slap in the Face' presents the band's more brutal face with its fast-paced smacking. 'Through Fight We Grow' smells of Machine Head's 'Burn My Eyes' (1994) with its slow build-up. 'Daniel the Jack' is like thrashed-up Texan rocker without any originality. 'It's Time' is dedicated to late Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka of Decapitated, and is a melancholic slow song with acoustic bits. It's not so out-of-place as it at first sounds like, and there's a good reason for it to be there.

All in all, 'Act of Grace' is very North American sounding neo-thrash album. By the way, majority of the lyrics are very USA-tinged, too, about warring governments and dirty politicians, Jack Daniels, and "no money, no to heaven" stuff. It feels like the first five songs are linked, and not only theme-wise, offering the best music on the album. After this, the music strays to wrong paths. Only thrashing 'Don't Get Left behind' can get close to the first half's goodness. And the same tricks are used through the album, e.g. clean sung choruses and parts, which appear in every song.

The production is, in one word, loud. It's skilfully built, because it's filled with nuances and it covers everything from vibrating bass to tinkling cymbals, from ripping guitars to punchy, and does not clog. There's still room for varying vocals over all that.

While the band sound just and just like themselves, thanks to good vocals, it's just unoriginal. Plus, the band like to recycle their own stuff too much from song to song. The first half is good, the second only partly. The first song's intensity is never achieved again, even the band clearly try hard. The performances are energetic, at times exploding. But one thing that really made my head turn towards the score I gave this, is the lack of killer songs. So...

Rating: 7- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/15/2010 13:38