Prime Mover : "Under the Penumbra"

 

The opening track of this Atlanta band's new full length is very thrashy. They are smart song writers with plenty of hooks in the melodic guitar lines they can tap into when not charging full speed ahead. Death metal is also an influence of these guys. The cross roads of death metal and thrash seems to put them in a similar sonic zip code as perhaps Dark Angel. These guys snarl more often than not. I like the use of the sung vocals on the second song . They did not fall in the predictable good cop/ bad cop places. The album is well produced. There is an organic sound that reminds me of the first Machine Head album in terms of where everything sits in the mix, though the drum sound is a little less bombastic. The guitar solos serve their purposes. On 'Easy Prey" there is a chaotic layer of guitars swirling around you. 

There is a more purposeful sense of melody of " Where Paradise is Buried" . Blast beats sneak in from time to time throughout this album. There are most notable on this song. The vocal come closer to being sung on this one as well. There are in fact sung layers of almost power metal like vocals layered under the primary snarl of lead vocal. I like where this song goes dynamically. They come a little closer to black metal on "Kindred Oath" . Some of the guitar hooks are pretty cool on this one. I think they are growling about the illuminati and chem trails. I support that as a worth cause to write a song about. Some of the more stompy 90s death metal riffs on this one are pretty mean, I like the bass tone on this song as well. The give the Alice Cooper classic "Eighteen" their own more metallic spin. The vocals are gruffer. They also tease the riff from "Billion Dollar Babies" at one point. 

I had previously heard the more winding death metal epic that is " Thanaspherian" as it was released as a single. I like the main chug it locks into at the verse. 'Awaiting the Arrival" is on the more melodic side of death thrash. It is more mid tempo. They close out with the title track . Their songs are journeys and some have more turns than others. This one is more on the winding side as they throw a lot at you , but they do it well. These guys are a lot of fun and there is something for most fans of metal to band their heads to. I will give this album an 8, it is certainly worth checking out.