Passing Through the Fire to Molech

It takes quite the band to combine both awe-inspiring technicality with ear-worm producing catchiness. It's also quite impressive when a newer thrash metal band writes music that is 100% original and makes you want to click that repeat album button over and over. Enter Space Eater, a Serbian thrash metal band of absolute obliteration that never ceased to make me happy with their blistering latest album, Passing Through the Fire to Molech, that proves that some bands only get better with time. Even amongst bands that have the same insane amount of technicality meets catchy songwriting, Space Eater is in its own league. I am impressed by all of those kinds of groups, but Space Eater is special because they impressed me and allowed me to enjoy what they had written for this monstrous album. They can eat up all of the space on my music collection that they want.

They certainly took up as much time as they wanted on this record as it is a fairly hefty listen in terms of play time, but it isn't the longest thrash metal record out there. That being said, each song is written like a story being told: there is a definite beginning, a middle full of riff after riff and melodic solos, and a triumphant end. And there are no happy endings either as the listener is ground to a pulp with the pounding drums and the aggressive whirlwind of bass and guitars. There is no room for breathing, and you are being constantly being put through each musical blast of fury. It's like a spinning class from Hell, and the instructor is a two headed monster that sings and praises you and then screams and beats you till the next song.

This two-headed monster that I speak of is of course the mighty Luka Matković, a man who can belt out some nasty throatal screams, with a little Hetfield-esque set of clean vocals that layers very well over his band's sound. He tends to sound a metalcore-ish at times, but it certainly isn't over-saturating. There is the influence of the other subgenres of extreme metal, including the Morbid Angel sound alike beginning of the title track or the melodic black metal riffs and solos in "Unjagged." There are even some pop-style hooks in "A Thousand Plagues" that made me want to listen to the song many times. It's also the best song of the album and yields Matković's best vocals and riffs as well as the great riffing of bassist Karlo Testen and guitarist Đorđe Luković.

And Testen didn't get ripped off on this record, for I can hear his clanky, machine gunning bass playing throughout the well-produced album. This was the result of the producing job that Luka Matković executed wonderfully, and it's always good to see band members putting their stamp on a record's sound not only in the musician's role but in the seat if the producer. He ensured that Marko Danilović's drumming never over-powered the other instruments, but wasn't over-ridden by the guitars and bass. It's also interesting that there wasn't any sampling of any kind on this release and that's a refreshing thing because I am constantly hearing bands like Omnivore, Hirax, and Neuroma that rely almost completely on samples to "set their music apart from other bands."

So, what more can you ask for from Space Eater on Passing Through The Fire To Molech? It's a triple threat of great production, wonderful songwriting, and technicality that will impress even the most jaded thrasher out there. I came upon this album expecting great music and that's exactly what I got. And so I ask, why isn't this more popular? It certainly is a unique album and it puts Space Eater’s back-catalogue, as well as other band's discographies to shame with its jaw-dropping musicianship. The only complaint I have about this record is that its last few tracks were a bit too long for their own good as the same riffs were repeated over and over in a 90's era Death style of repeating. But other than that, my hat is off to these four men and their session musician and vocalist for a damn good record that hopefully brings them much good fortune in their career.