Rebirth of Skull

More than 6800 islands form the sovereign nation of Japan. I have to admit that decent recordings hailing from the “Land of the Rising Sun” rather belong to the curiosities of my collection, with their number not even coming close to one hundredth of 6800. In the hidden compartments of my brain I still find some cells indulging in reminiscence of Outrage and if I dig really deep, some fragments of Fastkill can be found. However, Riverge´s “Rebirth of Skull” is one of the few outputs that consciously from time to time finds its way into my CD player. And rightly so.

Riverge play thrash, in my opinion more leaning towards the European comrades in arms of the 80ies than the US school of those days, sprinkled with a bit of the Canadian Sacrifice. I do not know what they had to go through in life, but it took them nearly twenty-five damned years from their first demo to their debut release presented here. Some of the earlier songs found their way on this album and I have to state that the material has matured well. “Rebirth of Skull” brings us ten Japanese speed rockets, fueled by the desire to transport the spirit of the first wave of thrash metal into the 21st century. What they do very well. Fortunately, they avoid stepping into the trap of “enriching” their interpretation of thrash metal with modern frills and furbelows.

“Rebirth of Skull” follows the Kaizen approach and is as lean as me cut in half. “Thought Free” does not even waste ninety seconds to let “Till I Die” open the floodgates. The drumming in parts borders on blast beats and thrashcore, but different than in “Cutting Edge” does not develop a too frantic aura. The guitarists composed (or copied?) some “Sacrifice-ish” riffs when launching into the chorus of “Positive Ruin”. Lighting fast and feather-light they add some spices to the otherwise bone dry performance. Shouji Nakamura, responsible for the vocals, delivers his share as well. Sounding pissed and a bit drunk at the same time like in “Damned World”, he is a perfect match supporting his musician-compatriots.

I cannot conclude the review without a few comments on the one true exotic trait of the output. As you probably have long noticed, I am not an English native speaker. And I know that Riverge are serious, well-seasoned guys. But their English language skills border on malapropism and cacography of the language. “Cutting Edge” in my ears becomes “cutting eggs”. You care for another example? Here we go: “I till they voice on put to word to lock outlook”. I am at a loss for words. I thought that the German lyrical black metal lords of Mystic Circle will eternally occupy the throne of pure language. But this chair is about to topple. On the other hand, the CD offers two bonus tracks for the European pressing which I gladly accept as reparations. I will in return do my best to get hold of Riverge´s second and last recording. But even then, 6800 remains pretty challenging…..