Anger As Art – Ad Mortem Festinamus

[nyrating]

9th March 2016 Reinier de Vries Album Reviews 0

The first 2 albums of this band are in my collection, but somehow I never found their thrash excellent or outragious. I think that’s why I don’t own their other 2 records. On the first 2 albums their old school thrash missed good written songs that stick. The albums were not bad, just average in my opinion. Now their new album is released and I see that Steve Gaines (vocals and guitar) is the only member left from their first 2 releases ‘Anger As Art’ and ‘Callous and Furor’. Rob Alaniz on drums (since 2006), Danny Oliverio on guitar (since 2006) and Eric Bryan on bass (since 2013) form todays line-up.

The music is still old school thrash with a very raw edge, but this time the songs just stick better. Another weaker part on the first album was the singing. Due to a perfect production Steve sounds a lot better this time. The music is a mix of melodic Testament, old Kreator and Slayer, what do you need more? You hear that this is a band with experience and skilled musicians. After the intro a real thrash hammer and immediately one of my favorites follows. With an old school title like “Pissing On Your Grave” things almost can’t go wrong. With a nice refrain to shout along with this is an excellent live track. After that it is a roller coaster of speed, melody and aggression. Only “Praise Of the Firehead” isn’t a real thrash track. Here they show that writing a slower, almost a ballad is also something they control.

Anger as Art shows that it is still possible to improve and they slowly approach the premier league of thrash.

Tracklist:

01. Ad Mortem Festinamus
02. Pissing On Your Grave
03. Aim For the Heart
04. Tombward
05. La State Of Mind
06. Unknowing Undead
07. Hammer Blade and Twisting Fire
08. We Hurry Into Death
09. 2 Minutes Hate
10. Praise Of the Firehead
11. Dim Carcosa

Playing time: 48:00

Release date: 11 March 2016

Label: Old School Metal Records

Website: www.facebook.com/angerasart

About Reinier de Vries 188 Articles

Once a metal head, always a metalhead. My parents thought it would only be a period, but they were wrong. I quit to explain the beauty of metal music to others that are not into metal, because it is something you can't tell in words... It is like explaining to a teetotaller why a cold beer is so nice on a hot day... I started with bands like Accept, Metal Church, Iron Maiden and Metallica in the eighties and I think I will still listen to them when I'm stone deaf and old...