I first got into this band less then a year ago, when I checked out their previous CD, Inwards after it was recommended to me. While Inwards is a great CD in it's own right, several of the riffs sound similar and it seems like the band was partially recycling the same ideas on some of the songs. Noneless, Inwards was easily good enough to get me to look forward to the release of Impact and buy it as soon as it was released. Soon after the first song Acts Of Rage kicked off, I sensed that this is a more technical and brutal CD than Inwards. It seemed to have an almost death metalish feel to it, which was confirmed when the fist blast beat of the CD kicks in at a little bit after 0:40. As a death metal freak, this was a welcome change to me, as much as I liked the other CD. Act Of Rage is a great opener, and definitely a highlight of the CD. The Next Song, New Found Pain thrashes on in much the same fashion with a fast, thrashy as fuck main riff and occasional death metal blast beat passages. Again, it is one of the srongest tracks on the CD. Some of the tracks, such as track 4, Soul Poison seem very Slayer influenced, but this is by no means a bad thing. Yes, Dew Scented have occasional Slayer-isms in their music, but they are by no means a Slayer carbon copy, with their frequent death metal riffing and blasting. Dew Scented take elements of Slayer, death metal, classic German thrash, and At The Gates style Swedish metal to create their own modern sound. Yes, they are a German thrash band, by they by no means sound dated, and prove that the genre of thrash is still alive and has room for innovation. Impact hardly has any weak points, the only one being the cover song Hobbit Motherfuckers - a punkish sounding tune that does not at all fit with the rest of the CD. It is one of the best releases of 2003. A modern thrash masterpiece that truly borders on death metal, It has the potential to appeal to both thrash fans and death metal fans. I would recommend this CD to any metalhead.
