Bands like AfterBlood display a killer instinct right out from the gate. Their debut album Of Unsound Minds was produced by Waldemar Sorychta of Grip Inc fame, and it shows a young band with great potential. The music is bustling with energetic thrash riffs, but exhibiting those salacious, death-like growls from vocalist Hel Pyre. She’s such an accomplished performer, having a comfortable range that is somewhere in between Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow and Sabina Classen of Holy Moses.
The band hails from Athens, Greece and they have assembled an impressive line-up of guest musicians. Sodom’s own Tom Angelripper appears on “Mission of Aggression” and producer Waldemar Sorychta appears on “Beyond" and I think getting some heavy hitters like these two should help to beef up the band’s profile. Every other track on this release is sold and the music remains thrasy, with the occasional infusion of the Gothenburg sound to help balance everything out.
The strongest tracks are “Before Time Runs Out”, “The More I Lie” and “Beyond”. I picked these three tracks out for their consistency and level of aggression is very high. Like I said, there really isn’t a bad song to be had here and if you enjoy quality death/thrash then this is definitely going to be up your alley. The band has also recently filled out their line-up with Vector as their permanent drummer and Stylian as their second guitarist, so the new editions should bolster the band’s identity moving forward.
AfterBlood demonstrates tons of maturity and exhibits that killer instinct. At times they remind me of Arch Enemy and Holy Moses, but there is so much more to their core sound and I am very curious to see where they go from here. So far they are off to a great start.
Kenneth Gallant, Editor HMS
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