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Assaulter: Boundless!
06/07/11 || revenant
Now far be it for me, some lousy bum from Australia who writes reviews casually, to question the great wisdom and knowledge of the high priests of metal, the guardians of truth within the genre and their much learned acolytes, but those fucking idiots at the metal archives have got it wrong. I talk, of course, of the classification that Assaulter has been given within their pages. Black/thrash metal? What the fuck? Do you mean to tell me, oh self proclaimed custodians of the right to label metal, that raspy vocals alone are enough to classify this as black?
It seems that Assaulter have come under a spell of mistaken identity. With ex-members of Deströyer 666 and Razor of Occam, one would naturally assume that Assaulter would follow a similar sound. Indeed, as with both Deströyer 666 and Razor of Occam, raspy vocals and a love of searing guitar solos are trademarks of Assaulter’s sound. But Assaulter, far from being black, play a mixture of thrash traditional heavy metal, borrowing heavily from the NWOBHM scene. You will not find blast beats or tremolo picking here, just straight forward razor sharp riffs backed with solid rhythm spine.
“Boundless!” opens with straight up thrashers in “Entrance” and “Outshine” that grab you by the back of your head and bang it mercilessly. “Outshine”, in particular, is a sensational track, both vicious and fast in its delivery. You won’t hear too many songs better than this in 2011. “Into Submission” changes things up a little by flirting with some Middle Eastern influences. These ideas are explored even further with “Slave to the King”, with its fantastic lead guitar sections delivering mesmerising melody throughout. Assaulter shifts back into thrash mode for the next few tracks before hitting album closer in “The Great Subterfuge”, and 8 minute epic that carries dual melodic leads that point to classic Iron Maiden and is NWOBM to the core.
Production on this album can be best described as dry and dirty. Assaulter’s first album also carried the dirty sound, which would now seem to be their trademark. The guitars on “Boundless!” have a stronger and grittier sound than their debut, giving this follow up much more punch. The production, when combined with the raw raspy vocals, can give the album a pretty dry sound which will either be loved or not. For me, the sound they’ve chosen is perfect.
Overall, this is a bloody fantastic album. It’s raw, it’s gritty and there’s an overriding element of nastiness in it. There’s some fantastic musicianship to be found, particularly on the lead guitar work. There’s catchiness. There’s mesmerising melody. There’s so much to like about this album. I fucken love it, and hence I’m giving this…
- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: Assaulter MySpace
- Band
- S. Berserker: vocals, guitars, bass
- T. Hellfinder: guitars
- Peter Hunt: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. Entrance
- 02. Outshine
- 03. Into Submission
- 04. Slave to King
- 05. The Perpetual War
- 06. Exalt the Master
- 07. Dying Day
- 08. The Great Subterfuge
