April 2021 Feature Release – The Pit Edition
So just like that we find that a new month is upon us which of course means that we’ll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we’re asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter. We’re really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on our chosen releases so don’t be shy.
This month’s feature release for The Pit has been nominated by Vinny. It's the 2020 third album from Swiss thrash metallers Total Annihilation entitled "...On Chains Of Doom".
https://metal.academy/releases/17518
I wrote a review on this which hopefully defines my struggles with the album well? Essentially the early promise of the two promo tracks isn't realised over the course of the record as a whole and I guess for a band who have been around for 15 years I kind of expected better. Not a terrible record by any means but one that if I were writing a school report card for I would be noting "must try harder" in the general comments section. The three tracks I highlight in my review are great and for an eight track album they reduce the casualty count nicely.
3.5/5
I have submitted a review, but in summation:
At first listen I was underwhelmed by another slab of Kreator-worship, but by the fourth listen-through there were certainly elements that appealled to me - the production is stellar, I love the moments when the bass is allowed to shine through, the energy level of the tracks is high, and tracks with a bit more to them like Dead Souls and Tunnelratten are actually very good indeed. On the downside there are too many songs that feel like filler and, as Vinny points out in his review, Daniel Altwegg's vocals are a bit monotonous and a track like Dead Souls really needs a more varied vocal delivery to reach full potential. I now judge how good an album is by whether I would buy a physical copy or not and I have to admit, in ...On Chains Of Doom case I would not (unless I get it for a couple of quid second hand). Even saying that though, there is enough in this album for me to be optimistic that TA have a great album in them yet - this just isn't it.
This one was decent, nothing really much for me to say except it was a perfectly fine, run of the mill Thrash record. There's a few great riffs and some decently used storytelling elements but nothing that makes me want to go back for more than the few times I spent with it.
As a fan of the more intense European thrash metal sound, last year's third album from Swiss five-piece Total Annihilation (entitled "...On Chains Of Doom") ticks a lot of boxes. It's beautifully produced with a seriously brutal guitar tone that's more in line with death metal than it is thrash. It's also very tightly executed with the band working well within their technical limitations to give us a relentless brand of thrash that's not afraid to slow things down for some crunchy doom style sections on occasion. Front man Daniel Altwegg has a grindy & fairly monotonous European style of vocal delivery that keeps Total Annihilation firmly situated in the underground & the total run time is just about right for a modern thrash record. So it's needless to say that I quite enjoyed "...On Chains Of Doom".
What's stopping me from reaching for the higher ratings is a few things. Firstly, the composition is lacking in ambition & the construction of the riffs is relatively basic which brings some of these tracks an element of heard-it-all-before. The song-writing is also a little lacking in the way of memorability with none of these tracks standing out as particular highlights despite only one track falling short of an acceptable standard (see "Experience The Terror"). And finally, the guitar solos are very ordinary & don't really serve much of a purpose as they don't enhance the music in any way. It's pretty obvious that this is meerly a technical limitation & if I were in the band I would have advised against including them at all.
But, all criticisms aside, "...On Chains Of Doom" is a very heavy & generally enjoyable thrash record that makes up for its flaws with pure aggression & a good understanding of what makes underground thrash special. In fact, I'd take it over the 2020 Warbringer & Hexecutor albums we featured recently.
For fans of Legion Of The Damned, late 80's Kreator & "Agent Orange"-era Sodom.
3.5/5