After a hand full of demonstrational releases, Finland’s ‘Old School Death Metal Bulldozer’ Shrapnel Storm finally come up with their debut album, peacefully called Mother War. The quintet joined forces with the German (Thrash) Metal label Witches Brew to have this stuff released. It consists of ten new and older ‘songs’, clocking thirty eight minutes in its totality.
Mother War brings nothing new / renewing at all. Damn, this sounds like a depressing introduction…
But (Hell) no, I am glad that this material stands miles away from being new. With this album, Shrapnel Storm perform that kind of (old schooled) blackened War / Death Metal that characterized acts like Bolt Thrower, Illdisposed, Obituary, Unleashed, Massacre, Morgoth, Hail Of Bullets etc. The material is quite groovy / grooving, but actually it totally lacks of invention, creativity, variation and identity. Yet seen the persuasive performance and cool song writing, Mother War does not necessarily need to be considered a mistake. Actually, it’s quite mind-dragging, and for people like undersigned that’s at least a part of the essence of our beloved Extreme Metal scene.
I never dislike blasting outbursts, but this band mainly focus on slower, doom-laden riffs and melodious leads, and with surety it’s the best approach for this grooving stuff. The title trach for sure is the best example to define this opinion.
No more to say – let the stuff do the talking…