All Hell : "the Grave Alchemist"

The Asheville band is back with their debut for Prosthetic Records  album opens with a darker take on thrash that might remind some of Possessed. The song is smartly written so it's not just ripping past you like reckless punk. There is a little more of a Venom like snarl to "Necrosophia". There is a darker blackened feel to "Wed the Need", The vocals are rasped in a more thrashy sneer, think a more sinister version of old Kreator. There is another touch of black metal, if we are talking Darkthrone's more black n roll days on "Vampiric Lust". Then we get into the meat of the more stagnant racing with "the Castle". They slow it down a fragment on "Laid to Unrest" which is a more satisfactory head banging experience as they begin to remind me more of Skeleton Witch.  They even speed things up to a more howling blast beat, but it feels more thrash than black metal to me in it's intention.

The first touch of a darker punk than has touches of death rock rears up on "Memory Tomb" this is a really needed dynamic shift as things were starting to get a little stale. They finally hit a more moshing groove on "the Madness out of Time".  There is something that comes closer to being a hook and almost able to live up to the bar set by 80s thrash.  "The Thing In the Ground" and "Return of the Reaper" both feel more like filler to me though if you are a hug fan of  balls to the wall thrash, then it might do more for you. "Elixir" is more punk influenced and finds the drummer sounding more into his playing. They care more about their song writing again on "I am the Mist".

The album started off strong and then kinda got mired down in the speed of their metal. So here is a word to the wise when it comes to thrash, go back and listen to some of the classic albums from back in the day and then perhaps you will see even the non- Flotsam and Jetsam like bands such as Coroner or even Forced Entry wrote songs that go stuck in your head without vocals that were yodeling. These guys have promise in the moments that stand out where you hear something darker and different. I'll give it a 7.5.




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