Annihilation Process

There are said to be bands that run out of ideas over the course of a full-length record. That's why they sometimes choose relatively strange, shorter formats, for example a disc with seven songs and a playing time of 25 minutes. And indeed, you can't say that Violator from Brazil act less imaginative at the end of "Annihilation Process" than in the first tracks. The only thing stupid is that this release is already from the beginning of a downright frightening compositional simplicity. Good thrash metal is like a juicy piece of meat, but the South Americans serve tofu thrash.

To put it more simply, the music here undoubtedly belongs to the genre of rather hectic thrash metal. I don't want to deny energy, enthusiasm and technical skills of the band. Unfortunately, the truth is also that not a single riff of the guitars constantly sawing at top speed sticks in the ear. The same applies for every verse, bridge and chorus. It is also true that the singer's voice seems lively, but not particularly powerful. His nervous working off of the lyrics leaves no professional impression, inter alia due to his relatively high pitch. However, this weakness could be ignored if the songs had more to offer than just speed. But that is just not the case. There is no logic in the structure of the EP. The disc has no flow. It starts at energy level 100 and ends there as well, without a single significant change. This is still better than just offering a constant level of 50, but it's also not the be-all and end-all. Moreover, it is significant that as a cover song a title was chosen which could be adapted exactly into the own program. Even here Violator do not come up with the idea to set a small or gladly larger other accent.

Now one would wish the ambitious combo that a brute production would enhance the song material. Unfortunately, this remains a pious wish. The relatively thin guitars rasp themselves into Nirvana and there is nothing to counterbalance this weak point. What remains is thus a mediocre at best produced disc, which wants to combine the existing typical South American wildness of the music with grandiose melodies or catchy parts, but can't find any points of contact for it. It sounds like thrash, but at least it doesn't trigger any emotions in me. No meat, just tofu. I'm glad for the band that the other reviewers like "Annihilation Process", I just can't see the reason for it, as much as I regret it.