When your Death Metal sounds Rogga-ish, there must be some truth to it. And sure enough, Thorium‘s new piece The Bastard does include one Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, et al) as the main guitarist. Sometimes I cannot fathom how this man can stuff so much work into his 24 hours of waketime without adding the night to it. After all, he’s got a gazillion bands to attend to, plus some loving attention to fans and friends. AND we will for sure hear from him later in the year all over again.
But what really piqued our interest were the interesting noises emanating from one Michael H. Andersen, commonly called MHA.1 He had a vision stating that – and I quote – “…in Spring this year…”,2 the man “…felt incredibly inspired to write an album that would go back to the very beginning of Thorium.” One that should, in a way, become the new and improved debut album after all these years. I reckon, this should mean, we’re going back to 1997. New beginnings on a nostalgic note or an unbearable rush job? It’s gonna be a bastard, indeed.
The Bastard descends on you like a monolithic rockslide from hell. None of the tightly-written tracks move beyond 3.5 minutes of airtime, plus/minus a few seconds. And at first, you almost feel stuck in one of those chainsaw massacre movies with the masked one chasing you. Thorium descends on you like a bunch of thugs on a rampage, leaving you broken in their wake after they ran over you. A tale told pretty much on the album cover already with its gnarly, parasite-infested monster. And the RMR crew indeed picked up this record because of this straight-in-yer-face full-out attack. The kind of metal that will rumble comfortably across your stomach, burning that excess fat off your anxiety-ridden soul.
A whirlwind of rowdy riffs firmly embeds MHA‘s growls, rasps, snarls and grating clears3. Clears such as the ones on Nightside Serenade that sound as if the bastard himself spoke up. Or – take the excellent Pest with its tag-team vocals of growls ‘n’ rasp and its feisty industrial hammer blows.4 This variety finally furnished much-needed spice to break up the coarse fare on offer. Without this, the esteemed listener might get overwhelmed by a monochrome show of too much gristly grime in one serving. And this also keeps the repetition bug at bay. An unwanted feature that unfailingly appears on most of the classic Death Metal offerings.
The Bastard positively bristles with little nuggets from the axeman. Rogga Johansson truly lets loose with a riot of demented riffs, hot yet short leads, and his trademark squeaky and brutally short solos. And those hammer themselves into a pretty good production where even the bass remains audible to a point most of the time. A ruthless wall of sound boring down on you without sacrificing other band players in the process.
Ultimately, and true to Thorium‘s words, The Bastard is a rush job. But it is a good one. MHA understood that mounting a project rapidly with some continuous momentum can lead to good results without overthinking everything at every turn. If done well, the effort will result in a ton of refreshing energy and a bubbly delivery, driven by a focused team of specialists working toward a narrowly set goal.
And this is exactly what happened. The Bastard delivers a rough-hewn, gritty avalanche of old-style Scandinavian Death Metal that will just steamroll over you. A raw machinegun-ish rodeo of hyper-short tracks that follow one another mercilessly, like hammer blows falling on unsuspecting victims. The ebb and flow of merciless growls and more melodic parts throws in a welcome balance to limit the brutal grime somewhat. Albeit, I personally would have liked the stomp to be even more barebone, pugnacious, and belligerent. That said, The Bastard turned into a good record delivering just what it promised. Good ol’ down-home ’90’s Death Metal.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: Emanzipation Productions | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 20 September 2024