I was a massive fan of Burn My Eyes, it was such a stellar first album that I think they struggled for a while after, trying to find a voice because they seemed to float around in the ether. That is until Through The Ashes Of Empires, which was the precursor to this, their FINEST hour.
There are not many bands that six albums into their career release a masterpiece such as this. Make no bones about it, this a brutally heavy record and yet it is chock full of groove and loaded in dynamics.
Clenching The Fists Of Dissent is just monumentally heavy and yet grooves all the way to the fade out, and one of my fave metal tunes ever. Beautiful Mourning riffs its ass off all across your face and Rob Flynn sounds angry as though someone stole his cheetos. Aesthetics Of Hate has elements of old school thrash welded to the groove so you can see its DNA and the roots to the family tree of its birth. Now I Lay There Down is a slower paced track but that heavy low end groove is just so freakin’ cool, and I love the light and shade to this one.
Epic intro to Slanderous that will have you raging in your own invisible pit. The middle eight is doom central and evil as hell. A close second for fave track was Halo. I love the build at the intro and you can feel the explosion of heavy riffs and grooves that are about to come. Wolves has one of the busiest main riffs, and grooves like a beast. The whole shebang comes to a close with the fitting A Farewell To Arms. A very slow eerie build until the heavy chugga crunch descends onto your ears and that middle heavy riffing piece is just epic.
This is one of those albums where everything just comes together perfectly to create something special. I give you a near perfect metal album.
10/10 from The Grooveman.
