ENTRENCH - Inevitable Decay CD review

ENTRENCH - Inevitable Decay CD
Abyss Records
Genre: Thrash
Rating: 5/5

This Swedish Thrash band has been pumping out demos since 2006 which is oddly enough around the time the whole Thrash Revival started. Now that it's history (seriously people the revival is over) we can get into these types of bands who are putting out great releases without having to toss around the retro tag line as if it were bait. Here is this band's debut and frankly no fad could contain this. First off their sound is more Euro-centric (obviously but I've heard Euro Thrash bands of late aping ANTHRAX which made me sick) with the Tuetonic influence so up front that you would swear there was a sweat soaked hesher fresh the pit at Wacken in the room with ya while this is playing. There's also some US Thrash influence but I'll get to that later. The bottom line here is that we are not talking about that tongue in cheek, 'thrash there for I am' type of funny business. This is violence and brutality. This is the kind of stuff where after you walked out of a slam pit you were now sporting a sinister grin and blood, your own or someone else's. An old friend of mine lost part of his ear at a SLAYER show back in the 80s. He was so proud of that one and if he heard this I believe he'd chance the second ear in a pit at one of ENTRENCH's shows.

Speaking of SLAYER, these Swedes do add some tech savvy and throat cutting soloing which goes far beyond what most in the past revival were doing. Add to that the breakneck speed and time signature change-ups which they employ on the basic riffs. Most of the cuts on here come at you fast and hot like a someone on fire running out of a burning building. Don't bother smothering the flaming victim but instead just wait till they collapse to the ground and start a circle pit around them. Yeah that's sick and sadistic but so are the vocals on here by ENTRENCH's guitarist/vocalist, Fredrik Pellbrink. He's got a harsh vocal style which is not blackened or bombastic instead it just sits well with the music as if he's spitting venom upon the audience. So you've got your blood, venom and the smell of burning flesh along with an extreme thrashing about attack. At times, around the mid-point of the release, these guys remind me of MERCILESS DEATH (one of the better Thrash Revival acts from the states) mixed with early KREATOR. Like I said at the beginning of this review. These Swedes were putting out demos (five to be exact) for the past few years. Obviously while lesser acts were throwing out mediocre material to labels who were in a signing frenzy in order to keep up with a fad. This band was honing their craft in order to release this beast upon you. Damm worth the wait if you're into quality. Killer Thrash from Sweden. Hell might not be freezing over but I wouldn't be surprised if California fell into the Pacific after they get a load of this.

Label: http://www.officialabyssrecords.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/entrench