Desolation – S/T / 2005 Prank / 12 Tracks / http://www.prankrecords.com / Reviewed 02 March 2006
Screamed and growled out vocals make a great parallel to the pretty clear type of arrangements that tracks like “The Only Way” have. Everything is so deliberate in regards to the arrangements on this self-titled album. When the band goes into a bridge or breakdown, one can telegraph the general idea of what the band is intending to do; what really increases the chaos element present on each of the tracks really is the vocals.
Guitars are influenced by the early days of thrash metal and have influences ranging from Motorhead, Iron Maiden and Helloween even as the brutal vocals seem to straddle the line between crusty punk and death metal. The effect of the vocals on the instruments during tracks like “Myself” is interesting; what is much more thought-out turns into something much more brutal and from the gut when the vocals kick into effect. The immediate thing that an individual will hear during “No World Order” is the drums, and these are not the drums that individuals have been socialized to by the beginning part of this album. In a sense, Sepultura seems to be much more of an influence here and the resulting fury really gives the beats more of a front seat when compared to the guitar shredding of the second half. What is another eye-opening experience during “No World Order” is that the band ratchets up their speed once more as the vocals seem to blast by the guitars and drums, causing a reaction where all elements really kick into overdrive by the time that “In Blue No Innocent Will Die”.
“In Blue No Innocent Will Die” changes things up because the vocals that have provided such a constant source of unbridled fury actually break down at points to reveal a human element to Desolation that is obscured when perfect guitar lines are so common during the disc’s thirty-three minute runtime. The ability of Desolation to break free from the mold of this crusty, thrashy music is perhaps what should drive individuals to pick up this album; on the aforementioned “In Blue No Innocent Will Die” there seems to be a tribal drumming that goes beyond the Sepultura sound of earlier tracks into something that is drawn directly from previous generations. Eleven original cuts and a cover of Nausea (Inherit the Wasteland) mean that this album will not have to gain dust as it should (if your soul isn’t dead) be in your CD changer for days, weeks and months to come.
Top Tracks: Black Birds, The Only Key
Rating: 7.0/10
[JMcQ]