This one dropped a while back (March 2015) but has just made it through the virtual mailbox. Some things are worth the wait, though…
Dienamic hail from Norway and they play “Artic death thrash”. Essentially, this is no nonsense, old fashioned thrash. Pounding drums and crunching guitars serve up the verses and choruses, wailing six-strings kick in for the mandatory solo. There’s no fancy embroidery around the edges, no arty-farty nonsense other than the very occasional clean guitar break (nothing unusual in that, as far as thrash is concerned). This is thrash as it was thirty years ago, only with better production and a slightly beefier tone. And, yes, maybe an edge of a death sound.
From opener “The Reaping” through to the rather appropriate “The End”, this is an album written with one purpose in mind – to have you headbanging like hell and playing air guitar until your fingers bleed. Gustav H. Lindquist’s vocals are very gravelly, but still travel through a bit of a range.
“Revolution For Nothing”, for instance, pushes the boundaries slightly into a near-death experience in places and in others is close to a more melodic tempo. If there’s a song that shows off Jørgen M. Olsen’s drums, it’s this one. He’s since been replaced by Sebastian Jacobsson, but I’m sure he’s up to the task!
As far as “straying from the norm” goes, “You Still Walk” is the least thrashy song on the album. Much slower, at least in the opening couple of minutes, it comes across very much as an experimental track – something a bit different just to mix things up. It’s still good – just a little out of place.
Perhaps deliberately, it’s followed by what is possibly the fastest track on the album, “Generation Reboot” which opens with such pace it’s a wonder there’s actually 3-and-a-half-minutes of it. I was exhausted by the time I finished listening to the intro.
That final track, “The End”, is another near-melodic death number and runs for a little over seven minutes. It’s a good song to end the album on as it’s so different to the rest that it can be treated more as a bonus track if it’s not to your taste – and it is different enough that it might just divide opinions. I like it, but it was a surprise when it came on and the tone was obviously so different from the other songs. That doesn’t stop this being a thrash album, though. Did “The Ritual” by Testament stop that similarly-titled LP from being a thrash album? No, of course not.
Afterlife is the second album from Dienamic and they’ve already done a fair bit of touring with plenty planned in of this release. Definitely one worth checking out and I can see them going down a storm live with the right crowd.
Dienamic: official | facebook | youtube | soundcloud
