Uncertain Future

Wow, this has to be the worst thrash album of all time, just about. The thing is, for the most part they fit into the genre pretty well, but the riffs they put in are just utter crap a lot of the time. They sound like they are trying to be Forbidden at times, and it results in the same awkwardness and lack of riff continuity, except amplified 100 times worse.

First song... Bludgeon starts off decent with a cool intro riff that leads into another good one. The drums are way too loud, though... and then they get into this really silly melodic passage that doesn't go anywhere or do anything, before returning with some kinda plodding under-the-verses riffing. Around 1.52 it sounds like it'll get interesting, but it merely speeds up, and the riffage is just crap for a bit. At around 2.06, now there's a good riff for a second under the chorus. What they do here is throw in far too many ideas for their own good. Ya know what, most of the time lots of riffs is a good idea, but not when some of the riffs are utter crap. Also, the guitar tone is weak and the vocals and drums are far too loud in the mix. Forgettable song with really one good riff.

Kaleidoscope of Pain starts off all right, as do pretty much all the songs on here, and there's even a decent headbanging riff around 0.49 but then they subtly warp it into something that sounds like the same plodder from the song before, only aboutt 20% faster. This is not bad, but just not great - then they speed up, and get all sloppy. "First they cry, then they hate..." - what a shitty section. Then, more riffs and a solo and then just too many stop breaks for their own good, with the drumwork also very inconsistent and distracting. There's the nic riff again at 2.25 (same as at 0.49) but they don't really utilise it well in the context of the song, and again here comes the under-verse riff. Also, every time the vocalist comes in, it's very choppy and distracts muchly from the riffage. Overall, it sounds like they can't decide to go fast or midpaced, and the song has no continuity whatsoever.

A Look Through Glass - or Through Eyes of Glass? - this is the worst so far, and can't even come up with a good intro. A very mistimed-sounding riff not all that far removed from Machine Head, then some acoustic parts, before a part that sounds like it'll build up into a raging speed monster, but then here comes a shitty groove-halfthrash riff and some random vocals and then a stupid solo. Okay, at 1.02, now THERE is a FUCKING THRASH RIFF. Bang! Bang! Man, here the vocals also make sense, and this is how thrash is supposed to sound. A kind of an awkward stop break, but then back to the bang. Around 1.40, though, it gets all worthless again with some silly riffs that try to sound technical and just lose it in the composition department. Laid to rest! But no one sees! The riff underneath here is okay, but again it just sounds forced and mistimed, especially with how the guitars interact with the drums. For the next 30 seconds or so it sounds like they're trying to get somewhere, and finally at 2.34 they do - some more solid banging. See, when they are on, they are dead on, but when they are off, they sound like "assorted thrash parts" as opposed to an actual thrash album.

Anaconda - man, now here's a fucking thrasher. Forget about the silly intro because at around 0.43 the guitars finally kick in, and the song gets faster and faster and kinda borrows from the Jaws theme a little, and ... okay, little silly bass break, but then here's the riffage. Man, this is how the rest of this album should sound. A nice riff change at 1.15, and the peasants rejoice as they continually bang their heads without pausing to stop and say "wait, what the fuck is this crap?". Even the riff at 1.34, and the one at 1.41, and then when the vocals kick in, man this is something quite excellent. Not all that far removed from Xentrix or maybe some Exodus. Even the chorus works! Man that post-chorus riff is simple as Hell, but great fucking ownage. See, when it's simple, it works. Only when they get complicated, they fall flat. Watchtower, this is not.

Octoclops is next. Little intro that goes nowhere leads into some pretty forgettable riffs. The one at 0.31 again sounds like it's trying to do too much for its own good -
though the one at 0.44 is a bit better. Though, there are too many gratuitous-solo breaks. There's some great riffs in here, but at times they throw in a riff that's almost great, but not quite, and then totally drive it into the ground until you never want to hear it ever again. Also, when they try to play fast, they just sound very sloppy (see 1.43) and the alternating fast and slow parts just sound very much forced and not well-thought-out. The rest of the song is pretty much like this all the way through - there's one really good riff in here, and then a lot of pretty bad ones, when all is said and done.

Unrest they Find - little intro. Man, they really like their intros, don't they? Can't just start a song with raging fucking thrash - gotta throw in some silly acoustics and random effects just because they can. Finally, the distortion kicks in and the song starts building up, though it really does take a while to get going, and even when it does, it's a silly stop-go riff that works ONCE as a break, but not fucking 8 or 16 times in a row with little variations. And again, when they try to be fast, they end up sloppy, and the counterpoint midpaced riff is just weak and too Pantera-ish as opposed to being an all-out thrasher. That's the main problem - that riff, used once, would make a great fill to throw between two all-out thrash riffs, but to play it over and over and over again, urgh.

Morgulon starts off with - you guessed it - yet another stupid intro. Lots of gratuitous noodling on the guitars, while the main rhythm instrument is the bass. Finally, the rhythm guitar comes along, but the first riff at around 0.24 is just complete crap, unfortunately. It's just mistimed with the accent coming on the wrong note - it's impossible to headbang to because when your head is supposed to be up, it's down, and vice versa and it just doesn't work. "Go!" - okay, that means play fast and sloppy and have the rhythm guitarist forget he had any idea what he was doing. But hey, that's all right, the drums drown out the guitars in the mix anyway. Then they slow down for the under-the-verse riff, which is another one of those plodding ones we first encountered at the beginning of the album. Then the pre-chorus is just sloppy with the drums dominating the idea and the guitars lacking any sort of catchiness. Just bang, bang, bang and very sloppy and no idea of execution. Then throw in a seemingly endless middle section, before finally we come to a riff around 3.38 that shows some promise, except they just totally run this one into the ground too... argh, guys, you gotta employ better riff selection. Sometimes it's too many dumb riffs in a row, other times it's taking a good riff and destroying it through overuse. Then another verse, and again the guitarwork there is simplistic, sloppy, and overfast. There really isn't a riff to be found there, just lots of loud drumming.

The last song... finally, this abomination is coming to an end. This one actually gets to the song pretty fast, though the first riff is pretty damn mediocre. Finally, we get to the riff under the verses, which is very minimal and just seems like they forgot the idea of having good riffs, and let the drums and vocals do the talking - then the one at 0.53 is yet another example of the mistimed type that they try, just in the name of being "technical" but doesn't work anyway. Then at 1.29 they sound like they explode out of nowhere for the chorus, but again what is missing is the good solid headbanging riff. Same again at 1.51 - the riffs here are tolerable at best, and actually quite forgettable. Also, as I mentioned before, the vocals are just far too fucking loud, and the guitar tone is very, very weak. The middle break - here they seem to get something going, and it's decent for a little while until it's time for another verse, and the riffs just die again as the vocals kill them into oblivion. Then the fast part, with the vocalist trying to sound all excited, but the fact is, when you've got your drumwork leading the song, you're just not going to come up with solid thrash. Then there's a section with a shitty Sacred Reich style groove riff, alternated with a good thrash riff, but then they choose the shitty one to put under the little solo, before more random verses. Man, they really have no fucking idea what they are doing, do they? The song kinda stops at a point, and that's the album for ya.

So this album alternates between being generic and being far worse... clearly not a good fate. They try too damn hard and just come off as annoying. Also, the guitar tone is weak as Hell, and there isn't nearly enough thought put into the riff-writing process. A lot of the times they think that a nice heavy drumhit will take the place of a solid riff. They know how to write good riffs, as the one good song here shows, but they just choose to try to get all technical and throw in ideas that just fucking suck a lot of the time. Entirely avoidable album.