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Release Date: February 1st, 2011
Record Label: Metal Blade
My rating points:
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After a hugely impressive debut album "The Onslaught", Lazarus A.D. is ready with their sophomore release "Black Rivers Flow". To me, The Onslaught stood out as one of the best releases of 2009 and I thought the band came up with an excellent blend of thrash and traditional heavy metal, thus giving them a reputation that is far beyond just being a part of the "thrash revival", and providing them the ideal launching pad for the new album. Lazarus A.D. are easily one of my favorites when it comes to the younger bands. This is an album that I've been waiting for since last year, and I'm more than thrilled to express my opinion on it.
"American Dreams" gives the album a very interesting start. It's heavy, melodic and progressive with some solid rhythm riffs and lead guitar parts that are extremely easy on the ears. Everything gels together brilliantly and nothing seems forced or overdone. In terms of the vocals, frontman Jeff Paulick seems to have continued with the same intensity that was on display in The Onslaught album. "The Ultimate Sacrifice" is a song you might have heard already, as it's the first single from the album. I am pleasantly surprised by what this track offers. Besides the usual components, the clean vocals by guitarist Dan Gapen and the breakdown- type guitar riffs interspersed in this track are two aspects that are new to Lazarus A.D.'s music. It is heartening and refreshing to see that Jeff and co. have actually progressed, and apparently have been able to expand on their musical horizons. Hence it's no surprise that this song was chosen as the first single.
Next comes "The Strong Prevail" which is a little more up-tempo as compared to the first two tracks. Drummer Ryan Shutler in particular shines through on this one. This is one of the thrashiest, most "headbanger friendly" songs on the entire album and definitely needs to be part of their live set when they come around on tour again with Death Angel in February of the coming year. This song is more in a similar vein as most songs on the debut album, and people who already know Lazarus A.D. from The Onslaught and from their previous tours will easily identify with this tune. The title song follows. It's pretty easy going to start with and most of it is sung with clean vocals. But it picks up considerably towards its latter half and rounds out as being perhaps the most layered track they've written till date. There's just so much stuff going on here, it's just incredible to think that it has come from a band like Lazarus A.D who are so young in their careers.
"Casting Forward" is quite a contrasting tune, and is straight up heavy while still maintaining the melody in vocals and guitar that have been a feature of this album so far. Along with The Strong Prevail, this is a track I quite enjoyed listening to, and it's another song I foresee as being a part of the band's future shows. "Light A City (Up In Smoke)" is mid-tempo for the most part, with faster segments interspersed throughout. It has great diversity within itself. There are parts that you will enjoy singing along with, others will make you head bang, while still others will make you play air-guitar and raise your fists. The main riff here is reminiscent of "Revolution" from The Onslaught album and it's good to see that they've decided to retain some of that old flavor rather than changing things completely.
"Through Your Eyes" is another track that surprised me. The main riff, solos and progressions give you a technical death metal feel but the amazing thing is, there is enough otherwise to suggest that it's indeed a Lazarus A.D. tune. Certainly one of their darkest sounding tunes, this will impress the extreme metal fans and might well turn out to be the track that garners them an entirely new fan base and opens doors to touring with extreme metal bands. "Beneath The Waves Of Hatred" is a largely guitar oriented track and will come across as sugar to the grateful ears, for the most part anyway. Even though it is guitar oriented, it has the perfect mix of aggression and melody, so perfect that it will make almost certainly make you hit "repeat".
The longest song on the album "Eternal Vengenace" comes last. As you would expect from a 7-minute track of this nature, it builds up gradually and beautifully before it really launches into a signature Lazarus A.D. thrash tune. The slow and aggressive interlude then gives way to an exquisite guitar solo after which the song picks up an entirely different, dark riff. This song is a musical story in itself, excellently featuring all the essentials of Black Rivers Flow. In terms of the overall production, the album sounds crisp and heavy with all instruments perfectly mixed together, and doesn't seem over-produced, as is the case with quite a few albums that come out these days.
If you're already a Lazarus A.D. fan, this album will surprise you quite a bit and will exceed all your expectations. For the unfamiliar few, let me try and paint a picture in comparison here. The first album Onslaught is an amalgam of music that bears resemblance to and comes across as being inspired by Testament, Iron Maiden and early Metallica. But when it comes to this album, they've blended in a lot more modern elements, while still keeping the old school heavy metal intact. Think Black Sabbath and Ozzy combined with Pantera, Machine Head and of course, Lazarus A.D.'s own sound. So if you've heard of any of these bands, which if you're reading this you most certainly would have, give this album a chance when it hits your nearest record store on February 1st. We aren't even done with 2010 yet, and Lazarus A.D.'s Black Rivers Flow already promises to be one of the most exciting releases of the year 2011.
An immensely exciting and incredibly diverse album by one of the most talented metal bands out there today. A superlative effort.
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