Swine Plague

I discovered this act through “Kill Division” (yeah, that late), and their hyper-active retro thrash exploits, spiced with the odd shade of death, amused me although I didn’t get overly excited to the point of tracking down every single song of theirs. It was a few years later when this mighty “Dream Deceiver” fell into my hands, prompting me to get a hold of the debut almost immediately, and to clearly see that classic Dutch thrash from the late-80’s/early-90’s wasn’t just Mandator, Vulture, Thanatos, and Sacrosanct.

Yeah, these lads were moshing out with all the vigour they could muster, no kidding. Their 00’s ride, however, was less smooth and vigorous the guys trying to belatedly capture some of the 90’s modern vibe with “Haatland” although the steam-rolling, depressive tank-like sequel was a well noted return to form, unstained old school thrash that is.

The next episodic appearance is the album reviewed here and the band take no prisoners with the bashing ball of fury “Helhuizen”, a surging outburst of aggression that pretty much sets the tone for the ensuing proceedings, firmly establishing the retro thrash setting. The roller-coaster seldom pauses for a break with more polished, more elaborate headbangers (“Duhr”, “Palfium”) giving a bigger lustre to the intense approach which nearly reaches the speed of light on the maddening “The Awakening”. “13 Close” would be a pleasant, unmitigated deviation with its impetuous galloping rhythms and the bigger number of twists and turns, and although the delivery becomes more intriguing afterwards with the melodic quirks on “The Day of the Devil” and the more entangled riffage on “Spanish Horse” (no gallops here), the lyrical acoustic etude “The Reformation” notwithstanding, it’s difficult to detect anything too intricate on wild rides like “The Gates Beyond” and especially the wayward speed/thrasher “The Battle of Europe”.

Overall the band have remained faithful to the sound on the preceding mushroom… sorry, moshorama the tank gaining inertia, albeit with not very regular strides. Alongside the other staunchy veterans Thanatos the guys assuredly lead the way through the new millennium, showing the young upstarts (Face the Fact, Ecocide, Distillator, Sidius, etc.) from their homeland how it’s done, including with precious words of wisdom regarding delicious domestic animals and insalubrious conspiracy theories.