Dew-Scented - Inwards
Nuclear Blast - 2002
Reviewed by Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Nuclear Blast website.
Go to the Dew-Scented website.
The thrash revival, I said recently, began with Carnal Forge. Well, in that case, you can consider Dew-Scented to be the fresh-faced new recruits, full of energy and enthusiasm and eager to impress.
And impress they bloody well do. Inwards is the fastest, most pummelling slice of hyper-speed furious thrash metal since... well... Carnal Forge's last album, actually. The German quartet have already recorded three albums, and this latest takes their sound, refines it, puts it through a particle accelerator and fires it from a cannon.
The opening track 'Bitter Conflict' sets out the band's stall from the opening seconds - knocking the listener's breath out of their lungs with a torrent of drumming so fast that Nick Barker should be looking nervous, and backing that up with inhumanly fast riffage and Leffe Jensen's throaty, searing vocals.
Second track 'Unconditianal' is just as punishing, especially at its climax. The wall of noise gradually builds in density and volume until the track begins to sound alarmingly like the recording of some unholy musical armageddon. Make no mistake, this is no easy listening record. If you listen to 'Inwards' you should be prepared to feel the unshakeable compulsion to bang your head like it's mounted on a ball joint.
There are a couple of downsides though. A band that bases their fuitar sound around furious palm-muted riffs coupled with occasional fret-melting solos without a pause for breath between the two is sadly going to leave themselves with little room for dazzling creativity, and so the tracks on Inwards can begin to segue unnoticeably into one another if you're not listening attentively. Also, the production leaves the bass sadly buried behind every other instrument - to the extent that I could believe there isn't actually a bass player in the band!
However, these minor gripes aside, Dew-Scented provide an album's worth of hyper-speed thrash metal which will appeal to fans of Slayer, Death, At The Gates and The Haunted, and will ensure them a place amongst the new-wave of thrash metal titans.
8.5/10
Nuclear Blast - 2002
Reviewed by Philip Whitehouse
Go to the Nuclear Blast website.
Go to the Dew-Scented website.
The thrash revival, I said recently, began with Carnal Forge. Well, in that case, you can consider Dew-Scented to be the fresh-faced new recruits, full of energy and enthusiasm and eager to impress.
And impress they bloody well do. Inwards is the fastest, most pummelling slice of hyper-speed furious thrash metal since... well... Carnal Forge's last album, actually. The German quartet have already recorded three albums, and this latest takes their sound, refines it, puts it through a particle accelerator and fires it from a cannon.
The opening track 'Bitter Conflict' sets out the band's stall from the opening seconds - knocking the listener's breath out of their lungs with a torrent of drumming so fast that Nick Barker should be looking nervous, and backing that up with inhumanly fast riffage and Leffe Jensen's throaty, searing vocals.
Second track 'Unconditianal' is just as punishing, especially at its climax. The wall of noise gradually builds in density and volume until the track begins to sound alarmingly like the recording of some unholy musical armageddon. Make no mistake, this is no easy listening record. If you listen to 'Inwards' you should be prepared to feel the unshakeable compulsion to bang your head like it's mounted on a ball joint.
There are a couple of downsides though. A band that bases their fuitar sound around furious palm-muted riffs coupled with occasional fret-melting solos without a pause for breath between the two is sadly going to leave themselves with little room for dazzling creativity, and so the tracks on Inwards can begin to segue unnoticeably into one another if you're not listening attentively. Also, the production leaves the bass sadly buried behind every other instrument - to the extent that I could believe there isn't actually a bass player in the band!
However, these minor gripes aside, Dew-Scented provide an album's worth of hyper-speed thrash metal which will appeal to fans of Slayer, Death, At The Gates and The Haunted, and will ensure them a place amongst the new-wave of thrash metal titans.
8.5/10
