Brotherhood of Freaks

It has taken more then twenty years for this band to finally release its first full album, and what an album this is! The pure brutal sounding thrash songs remind of late Kreator albums, and sometimes have the little more black minded thrash influences of Sodom in them as well. Virgin Sin was called the very first black metal band from Sweden, but because the band stayed almost completely unknown to the outside world, their sound didn't have any impact. Over the years and after a bunch of line-up changes, the band began to play a more ferocious thrash metal sound.

When I first saw this album, and the reputation of the band, I was afraid to get something too shock-based. You know, like there used to be KISS and Alice Cooper, and now we've got Slipknot and Deathstars. Luckily my prejudices didn't come true, 'cause when you hear this album, it's just total aggressive and blood-curdling thräsh! They may measure themselves to this "Gods of Shock Metal" reputation, it's just a status - the music mostly isn't suffering from it. In some cases the vocals are maybe a tiny bit too shock-based; the gargling sounds for example remind me of stuff I heard with the nu shockmetal band Dope, so that's not really something you want to hear on a violent thrash album. But it's the status which they have had for already more then two decades, so who am I to question that? What they gave us with "Brotherhood of Freaks" is a memorable "debut", and will have a lot of disciples if it was but a bit more promoted. Maybe that's not their goal, but with an album like this, you just need to get more known. Numbers like "Whoregasm" and "Skinned Alive" would be perfect singles, they have everything a good thrash song requires.

Anyway, if you're a fan of the genre, be sure to check them out (and certainly don't be prejudiced by their looks), together with Onslaught's "Killing Peace" and Blood Tsunami's "Thrash Metal" one of the better thrash albums of 2007 (up until now)!