All hail king Mille! Bow down before the godfather of euro-thrash who has assembled
his crew to churn out another tastier-and-meaner-than-thou dish of thrashing excellence.
Gone are the larger experimentations of the 90s and back is the good old 80s feeling
that was brought back with the previous offering, Violent Revolution.
The biggest notion that hit me with Enemy Of God was its extremely
high old school-factor - not only on the trademark thrash riffing, but also
with the machine gun-like double bass flurries, Priestish double
guitar harmonies and the biting-yet raw guitar sounds. Milles voice is still
in fine form and he is still able to scream with the best of them.
This album is basically a stupendous thrill ride to anyone who digs the more
extreme sides of 80s metal. Youve got the massively aggressive thrashterpieces
that demand moshpits galore (Enemy Of God, Impossible Brutality, World Anarchy,
Suicide Terrorist); guitarfests that burn with magnificent riffs, leads
and harmonizing melodies (Under A Total Blackened Sky, The Ancient Plague,
When Death Takes Its Dominion) and tunes that also mix in some mellow atmospheric
moments (Dying Race Apocalypse, Voices Of The Dead, with the latter
serving up one of the best choruses in Kreators career). Some
progressive tempo elements are even displayed in some songs, which does differentiate
this album from the bands earlier work. Ventor Reil beats his skins up like
a hurricane but still maintaining the taste of not going overboard. Sami Yli-Sirniö
shows brilliantly why he was a good choice for the lead guitarist spot with
his searing lead work. The album is rounded up nicely with the strong, ear-crushing
production, which is thankfully left raw enough to compliment the angry attitude
of the material.
The old warhorses still have it, my friends. This record is like a microcosm
of good 80s metal with modern sounds to boot them up. This is thrash metal 101
added with excellent Maiden-like melodies, hooks and catchy
choruses to spare. If you like 80s metal, be it thrash, death or more traditional
melodic stuff, you should love Enemy Of God. I know I do, and I know
already that this disc will appear on the top spots of my Best Of list, come
2006.
Holy shit, its this good and were only starting January. If this only gets
better, the metal is really gonna scorch this year. Rejoice, brothers and sisters!