Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Invocator > Through the Flesh to the Soul > 2003, CD, Scarlet Records (Digipak) > Reviews
Invocator - Through the Flesh to the Soul

This Resurrection Attempt’s Impact Not as Imminent - 62%

bayern, October 11th, 2020

The Invocator gang refused to be side-lined: mere years after their compatriots and competitors Artillery reformed, they woke up, ready for battle. Well, at least their initial enthusiasm was pretty big… while Artillery have been a very steady, regular presence on the scene in recent years, our friends here have largely been invo… sorry, invisible…

but let us look into this second spell, one that started in 2002 with a 4-track demo, the material covered convincing enough to pass for a buried chapter from the “Weave the Apocalypse” sessions, the biggest difference being the much cleaner more attached vocals. Nothing glaringly classic on display although both "Infatuated I Am" and "There Is No Savior" can pass a sturdy headbanger’s test. "On My Knees" is served with an unmitigated shade of groove, but the consistent hypnotic main motif works on all counts, including the mixture between the two currents that is "Sand Between the Teeth", a diverse “stomps vs. speed” saga.

Needless to add, we find all those four cuts on the album reviewed here. The thing is that they’re clearly superior to the rest, but can’t truly shine as they remain the minority in a not very original, conventionally-performed modern thrash recording, one that takes itself too seriously on the cumbersome progressive chugger that is the title-track, a not very convincing juggler between dramatic accumulations and more dynamic sweeps. On top of that, the delivery is strictly oriented towards the tools of the past decade, the pronounced grooves on “Writhe in Spit” setting the tone in the middle, the latter turned into a Helmet-esque dirge on “Flick It On”. Still, the guys fail to fuck it on… sorry, up beyond redemption largely thanks to the numbers from the demo, but also due to the more energetic undercurrents on “The Chemistry of Restlessness” and especially on “Fire Cleanses All”, a short abrasive semi-technical headbanger aptly supported by a cool cover of the Germans Assassin’s “Abstract War” from their sophomore “Interstellar Experience”.

A fluctuating excursion, one that doesn’t stop looking for its most fitting face, the band throwing both delights and banalities at the audience, feeling their way through a spawned, but not fully shaped yet old school resurrection campaign. In the end, their final product can’t be placed strictly within the latter; it’s too nostalgic towards the 90’s scene to be readily accepted. It’s true that the lion’s share of the band’s past repertoire belongs to that decade, but if we exclude the tepid soulless “Dying to Live”, the rest has always been on the courteously flirtatious side with the then-powers of the day, not to mention the supreme debut’s openly retro orientation.

A cautious testing of the new millennium’s soil no more no less, this outing could have had a bigger merit if placed within a certain context… since it has been an isolated stint so far from the band’s second coming, with no other albums to be compared with, it’s hard to view it objectively… compromises between the two sides were not a rarity in those times at all, some (Exodus’ “Tempo of the Damned”) quite good; others (Nuclear Assault’s “Third World Genocide”) already forgotten… more excursions are necessary from the Invocator camp; ones that lead out of the comfort zone and place the artists on a riskier, demise-foreboding arena.

Good for what it is... - 78%

Desecrator_666, May 3rd, 2008

I will forget, while I write this review, that this is the same band that released that hell out of an album entitled "Excursion Demise", and I will avoid any comparison with that masterpiece (if I were to do that, I won't give this one a higher score than 20). This, on its own, is a very good album for the standards of modern thrash. Better than your newest Exodus, Overkill, Megadeth, maybe Kreator (Enemy of God isn't that bad, though).

I only have 3 problems with this. The first one is the production. Just like most modern thrash releases, it feels a bit overproduced, thus you have the feeling that it sounds watered down. It lacks the raw agression of 80's thrash metal. But you might consider it as a good thing though, depends on your taste, I guess. The other thing that bothers me in this albums is the vocal delivery. At times it's so clean and lacks any sign of agression that it sounds just like Trivium, especially in the choruses, where the backing vocals sound really lame. The third, and the one that didn't surprise me at all, is the bass, which is hidden during almost the entire album, but I guess that if you like modern metal it won't bother you.

Now, the good things. Good riffs. But I mean REALLY good riffs. And the guitars are not extremely dowtuned to sound "mOAr MeTHuL, LOLOL!!1!". For example, the main riff of "Infatuated I am" is one of the better I've heard in recent thrash releases, and so is the main riff of "There is no Saviour". The solos are not the best you'll ever listen, but that doesn't mean that they're bad. The drumming is pretty good too. It manages to be good either if the song is fast (like Infatuated I am, for example) or slow (well, slow in the context of the album, like Flick it on).

Check them out if you like modern thrash, or want some good recent metal. Fans of early Invocator, I wouldn't really recommend you this.