Void Terra Firma

Undoubtedly, Defiance suffered from being part of the second wave of the thrash metal movement in the USA. Their style was not revolutionary and the debut was a good one, but nothing more than simple thrash. This can be good for lots of old school fans but bad for those who were searching for innovations. However, I can consider myself a pure thrash metal fan so, I couldn’t be happier for their style. Void Terra Firma marked the second output by this band, exactly in a period in which the decline of the thrash was quite evident, even if few bands shot the last bullets.

We begin the album with the first notes of the title track and we can already notice something: the production is far sharper than the one of the previous album but the main point is focused on the technique level. The band has now reached a more than remarkable songwriting with catchy but heavy riffs. The structures are dynamic and the tempo changes are flowing, making the structures sound far more mature. The galloping riffs often fit perfectly also on mid-paced moments and this is not a too common thing. Obviously there are lots of fast restarts with vicious bass drums parts and up tempo. “Deception of Faith” displays a bit more progressive lead lines to create the gloom touch on which they can start to put up a good series of up tempo, followed by grooving mid-tempo moments.

The vocals already showed few sign of the groove metal, because few times they are not exactly thrash metal style. They sound a bit like Chuck Billy when he was pissed of shouting after The Legacy album and set on long, cleaner parts. “Questions” follows weird patterns at the beginning in order to create a strange aura with progressive touches and syncopations. The drums and the guitars are in constant balance between the old school influences and the new ones. Surely that massive riff at the beginning of “Skitz-Illusions” sounds definitely purer even if the track often falls into the groove style with that main riff utilized for the fast restarts. We go on with “Killers” and its weird beginning with frantic instruments and vocals as we remain always on high levels of riffage.

The beginning to “Steamroller” privileges the dark atmosphere even if when we go on we can notice few hard rock style parts with a catchy refrain and quite distinguishable more melodic riffs. The tempo is faster and this adds dynamism while “Checkmate” adjoins more of it. The thrash metal is again back on a clearer form even if the more mid-paced moments are inevitable. However, the bass drums sections are very good and the quantity of the tempo changes is quite high, supporting the solo duets in the middle. “Buried Or Burned” is incredibly similar to “Raining Blood” song by Slayer for the notes on the arpeggios but the ones on the galloping riffs are less evident. This song is always quite high in levels of speed and dynamism.

“Last Resort (Welcome To Poverty)” follows the old theory: “last song = massacre” because it’s full of nasty, galloping riffs and up tempo sections. The vocals are far angrier on those sections and this is good to end this work. Well, this album won’t be classified as a milestone of the genre but it’s always good for those who urgently need to headbang.