Despite almost two decades of existence, Expenzer finally release their debut full length via Czar Of Bullets. This Swiss quintet had the material recorded, mixed and mastered at the Little Creek Studio by Gurd’s V.O. Pulver, who did some studio stuff for bands like Darkmoon, Zatokrev, Megora, Excruciation, Destruction a.o. before. It did result in an eleven-tracker that lasts for almost fifty minutes, sweetly entitled Kill The Conductor – wanna take a ride and join the massacre?...
Oh yes, first this: the artwork, lay-out and pictures: original. No matter if you like it or not: it is quite apart, different, cool!
Kill The Conductor for sure is not the most renewing or original effort ever. …on the contrary. Very early Metallica, Testament, Megadeth, Pantera, Nuclear Assault, as well as The Haunted, Darkane or In Flames, are convincingly present within this band’s execution and sound. The Thrash stuff is somewhat catchy, yet not of the poppy kind, and enormously groovy / grooving too. It holds the middle in between old styled tradition and modernized craftsmanship (though: the focus surely lies on the Old School grandeur!), and there is a subtle hint of timeless Death Metal that sort of sickens the whole even more.
I think the representation of each single collaborator is a surplus. It has to do with the grandiose sound mix for sure, but I guess the band members’ experience shows its efforts as well. But I just need to mention the strength of the pieces too, because the lack of originality might repel the narrow-minded ones amongst us (kill them all!).
Seriously, this is one of the better Thrash efforts I’ve heard in quite some time, at least when talking about the ‘traditional’ approach. I’d like to invite you to aurally experience the track Silence Of The Amps (for some strange reason I start craving for a glass of cooled and little aged Chianti… but that’s another story; I’ll just take a nip of my South-African Sauvignon Blanc…) or, believe it or not, the quite cool cover of The Haunted’s Chasm.