Cloaks of Oblivion

Eruption are a Slovenian thrash band. Released on Xtreem Music (Dave Rotten’s label), Cloaks of Oblivion is their third album and it garnered significant attention, including some from USPM fans. It also marks the third thrash album released by Xtreem Music this year, with the other two being Holycide’s debut and Panikk’s sophomore effort. Ultimately, Eruption may have gotten lost in the shuffle due to the deluge of releases in May but this is one that more folks should really get behind.

This album packs plenty of great grooves and plenty of speedy riffs and tunes with great vocals and surprisingly interesting lyrics. Eruption kick things off with a short instrumental before launching into the frantic “Sanity Ascend,” which gets the album off to a ripping start. The album progresses in similar fashion, incorporating acoustic touches on the title track and presenting rippers like “Drones.” The solos are excellent throughout this album but “This Barren Existence” really stands out above the fray. For all of Eruption’s speedy riffing, they can groove with the best of them, which they do quite well in “Reborn Into Demise,” which also has a great solo.

The drumming is very solid with good, driving back beats and somewhat clever kick drumming. There is some pretty cool rim drumming in “The Prophet” as well as great cymbal work. Ivan really drives songs like “Drones,” adding extra punch to the fantastic thrash riffs and awesome shredding. He shows moments of greatness but overall it is a very good performance. Perhaps the drumming does not need to stand out as much when you have riffs as good as Eruption does with such excellent production. When it does stand out, it is icing on the thrash cake.

Outside of the awesome riffs, the vocals are truly the star of this album. Klemen’s voice mostly sits in that nice clean mid-range with a slight edge to it, making it unique in the genre. While this approach works quite well for Klemen and for Eruption’s sound, his screams are what make him stand out above his peers. He sounds a little bit like Bobby Blitz with slightly less grit but most of the screaming power. Klemen can also go lower which he only does once or twice but it shows great ability going to both registers. The sci-fi lyrics are a nice touch too.

There have been so many great thrash records this year and this one falls a bit lower than some others but to be fair, it has stiff competition. Hopefully, this band will get more attention because they absolutely deserve it. They will surely keep refining their already awesome sound and get even better. Eruption are surely a band to keep on the radar the next few years to see what they do next. Cloaks of Oblivion is another solid thrash album for 2017 and another great release from Xtreem Music.

- originally written for The Metal Observer