ALBUM REVIEW: Dawn Of The Axe – Cruel Force
We all love a good comeback story, and when it was announced that German metallers CRUEL FORCE would be returning after a more than a decade the metal underground rejoiced. The 2011 album Under The Sign Of A Moon showed a band with a huge amount of potential, with plenty of original ideas and penchant for writing savage blackened thrash metal tunes whilst still having a catchy hook for people to latch onto. With their first album in 12 years Dawn Of The Axe, the band will be looking to prove that they are still every bit the songwriters they once were and are ready to make a name for themselves across the wider metal landscape.
If there were any worries that the band had slowed up during their absence, then they are quickly quashed with the album’s title track. The drumming from GG Alex drives the song forward and lays the foundation for the intricate tremolo riffs of guitarist Slaughter and bassist Spider. The throwback style that the band write in is not too dissimilar from their legendary countrymen SODOM and gives fans of the traditional thrash metal style something to cling onto and the energy is so infectious that you cannot help but bang your head along.
The band have clearly been revisiting their main influences over their time away, harking back to the glory days of thrash metal back in the late 1980s with Night Of Thunder sounding as if it could have been ripped straight from SLAYER’s classic Hell Awaits (and that is in no way an insult). The same could be said with the following track, Death Rides On The Sky. However, this is not saying that they rip any of these bands off, rather that they pay attention to the keepings of the aforementioned titans of the genre and shape them into their own devastating tracks. It is also worth noting that this song has one of the finest guitar solos that the band have every committed to record.
With Watchtower Of Abra the band change the pace; with a dirty synth sound and haunting echoed lead guitar introduction the atmosphere shifts instantly, breaking things up perfectly before leading into the superb Across The Styx. This one’s a stomping song that completely changes the flow of the album and breathes a new lease on life into proceedings just at the point where the listener may be tailing off. The echoed vocal of Carnivore sounds huge, playing off against the booming drums perfectly. This whole song feels grand in a way that we haven’t yet heard on this release, showing that the band have plenty of ability to shift dynamics at moment’s notice and keep things interesting.
The closing track Realm Of Sands boasts an impressive seven-minute runtime, without ever feeling bloated and drawn out. The extra length of this track allows the guitars to run free with some of the most impressive lead runs on the entire release, with riffs, solos and bridging runs a plenty. The Lombardo-esque drum beats create the kind of backdrop that you can picture metalheads banging their heads to and spinning circle pits, with the barked vocals of Carnivore riding over the top with tremendous energy and attitude by the bucket load.
For fans of the original output by the band this is something to really sink your teeth into. There are all of the hallmarks of the classic CRUEL FORCE sound, whereas for new listeners there is so much to experience for the first time and the engaging manner of the songwriting is enough to pull even the most hardnosed listeners in. For a band that have been hiding in the shadows for more than a decade, CRUEL FORCE seem like they are ready to step into the spotlight, and with an album as fine as Dawn Of The Axe they are more than equipped to do so.
Rating: 8/10
Dawn Of The Axe is set for release on September 22nd via Shadow Kingdom Records.
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