Terrible Certainty

Right off the bat, there's an immediately noticeable change in tone and approach from the previous, much milder 'Pleasure to kill'. The riffs sound unusual for any thrash, much more sophisticated than anything they'd done til that point; blows it all out of the water, in fact. The guitar sections have added harmonized power chords to the repertoire, granting this brand of evolved late eighties thrash a fuller dimension. This record doesn't feel like a progressive album, and yet that prog component is obviously there; a testament to the expertise in composition. The odd timings, the frequent instrumental breaks, the genuinely avant-garde riffage going on in basically every song...there's real investigation around the guitar work, over what sort of unprecedented result might come from it.

Complex melody, riffs as inventive as they are technical, real sharpness and a cutting edge to them, sheer venom on the vocals and a nice bass rumble; this is music that is genuinely attempting to catch the audience off-guard and lives up to the promise of its claim on the intricacy front. The song-writing is consistently angular, yet settles into a nice pace, smooth as you like. The outside-the-box thrash approach is definitely there. Thirty-six minutes. This doesn't require an hour to convince. No intro is required here: it starts with a bang, straight to the point.

Old school thrash might be among the most redundant forms of music altogether, so it absolutely needs to bring something; an edge or intensity of some sort, or in this case supply a technicality and musical richness, a refinement... something to keep the outside listener happy. Some of it even manages to step outside the core duties of thrash: the chorus to 'Storming With Menace' has a dark, elaborate romanticism about it. Other parts are just killer riffs: 'No Escape' middle part, for one. Pure thrash for the sake of thrash caters to one given category of consumer, but surely won't seduce the outsider if it's all 'mm-tah mm-tah mm-tah mm-tah' drums 95% of the time and a desperately basic cocktail of shredding with power chords served up til well after the point of a full bladder.

Now, for a bit of criticism - this is an interesting one. On the surface, it gives the listener everything they should need: this is nothing but technical, tightly and purposely written, cohesive song-writing. It's got a subtle prog edge to it, and it's nuanced, with melodic elements interspersed with darker twists. But the problem is definitely there (for whoever might be sensitive to it): despite all the efforts and variations, it still feels, somehow, one speed and monochromatic. Or at least, it doesn't feel like it's ever taking off. Some thrash is more simple, but with far more basic patterns, sweeps the listener right off the floor with its contagious momentum. Think: does this make you want to headbang til you break your neck ? And surely, that would account for something. If thrash music is superior in composition, but lacks conducive energy and rhythm, then it's defective in that aspect - it doesn't generate the groove it's supposed to make room for. For all the goodness on display, this still feels a tad linear, if not narrow.

It's like a really well made and sophisticated dish that took a lot of work and reworking, that ends up missing that bit of spice to make it all blow up in your mouth - or in your ears in this case. You can't really eat Kreator albums.