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Mahatma: Perseverance
29/09/08 || HailandKill
Unless you really don’t give a fuck, a particular genre’s resurgence has set the global underground boiling. Ever since Trivium’s “The Crusade” harkened back to the old school, kids between the ages of 16 and 40 (that’s Exodus) have been dishing out “real” Thrash records. Thus you have Evile’s rise in the UK, a few Bay Area comebacks (Death Angel, Testament, Forbidden), and a slew of revivalists across the US more numerous than the virulent rash on this reviewer’s scrotum. Anyway, where is this paragraph’s train of thought going?
Oh yeah, thrash revival. Two years after “Christ Illusion” and in the wake of “United Abominations” and “The Atrocity Exhibition,” one South Korean band cooks up a sonic hurricane melding the Bay Area’s legacy with a genuine hunger to write brutal music. Its title reflecting the band’s never-say-die stubbornness, “Perseverance” is the mightiest collection of thrash metal madness to come out in years from where you least expected it. Better know for industrial conglomerates and rivalry with its communist neighbor, nobody ever figured South Koreans could annihilate your eardrums, until Mahatma comes along with this testicle crusher of a sophomore release.
Alright, we’re done with the flowery introduction, let’s move on to the songs. Borrowing from their Buddhist culture, “There Is No Hope Without Suffering” is a cinematic intro that’s full of cool sounding philosophical monologue and spacey sound effects. “Beginning of the End” is a sheer classic, bearing the familiar hallmarks of numbing speed, razor sharp decibels and a crazed intensity married to singer/rhythm guitarist JK’s wrathful shouts. Legion of the Damned and Destruction couldn’t have done any better. “Unseed Enemy” and “Falling To Hell” are an artillery barrage of twisted riffs and savage drumming (courtesy of one Junesun), their unrelenting nature a textbook exhibition for the genre they represent. “Violence” is another shit-your-pants rollercoaster whose sudden shift in melody could readily induce a good-sized moshpit. Its imperative the unsuspecting listener be warned of the smoking axe-work on this record. Let’s just put it this way, if Dave Mustaine and Alex Sckolnick kissed, made up, and then had kids, their progeny would be Mahatma’s guitarists, JK and Jinho. Not surprisingly, the talent shows.
The album’s latter half showcases its melodic backbone, most evidently heard on “Reform’s” overwhelming chorus, the sheer awesomeness of “The Road I Musst Follow” and “Stormrunner’s” unmistakable familiarity. The damn song is so catchy and sinister it could have been a forgotten track from Megadeth’s “Countdown to Extinction.” Paying tribute to the Metal Gods, the band totally butchers “Painkiller.” Their chops may not be at fault, but the whole cover takes a nosedive with a totally unimpressive rendition of its classic drum intro. It’s best to withhold any further critical barbs here ‘cos its just damn awful, however, on the Japanese import of this album Mahatma gives “Practice What You Preach” a refreshing twist. “Despair Overcome” is an about face that forsakes aggression to show a different side of the band. It’s a ballad dammit, or at least a semi ballad that gets heavy somewhere in the middle. Adrenalin fueled and unpredictable, Mahatma’s “Perseverance” contains music contrasting the cover art’s polluted cumstain. This album has it all, so you either get yourself a copy or at least acknowledge its primacy over imitators across the Western Hemisphere. In summation, “Perseverance” says “fuck you” to the wannabes, because Mahatma IS the Thrash Metal revival.
9 out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Dope Entertainment
- Website: Mahatma Myspace
- Band
- JK: vocals/rhythm guitar
- Jinho: lead guitar
- Kyunghun: bass
- Junesun: drums
- Tracklist
- 01. There Is No Hope Without Suffering
- 02. Beginning of the End
- 03. Unseen Enemy
- 04. Having Hope
- 05. Violence
- 06. Falling to Hell
- 07. The Road I Must Follow
- 08. Stormrunner
- 09. Painkiller
- 10. Despair Overcome
