Condor - Unstoppable Power (2017)^{Release ID: 24159}

Making no bones about it, I fucking love Unstoppable Power. I loved it from the minute I first laid ears upon it. I immediately went and ordered a copy after one listen and am proudly blasting this CD (now some 4 years old) as I type this review. This is an album that showcases perfectly why I listen to extreme music. Condor had no fucks to give when making this record and it shows in bucketloads.

Unstoppable Power is under-produced and that is how it should be. Nobody listens to raw thrash metal for production values, do they? The barely controlled fury of Condor was a force to be reckoned with, but they had way more than just thrash metal in their repertoire to make Unstoppable Power a success. Incorporating those early Teutonic sounds with speed metal leads and tempos, throwing in blackened vocals style and a punky attitude for good measure made Condor as interesting as they were relentless. There are even occasions where NWOBHM gallops ensue on the record. Do you have to work to hear them? Yes, you do and so you jolly well should do! The clue is in the album title - Unstoppable Power – these guys didn’t come to write poetry.

Album opener Raised by the Evil sets the stall out brilliantly with its menacing intro and raging storm intensity levels. Listen to the inflection on Chris Sacrifice’s vocals and how he shapes words like “fire” for maximum dramatic effect without ever seeming to being striving at all, like it all just happens organically.

The main to riff to 83 Days of Radiation is stuck in my head for life. The rabid passages that they somehow try to pass off as verses are terrifying as if written by some severely unwell mental health patient on the walls of their room in blood. The lead work is done by players of obvious quality but again, there are no fucks given here either and for all the clear ability on show they just do not see the need to polish anything at all. The cumbersome nature of everything is all just part of the appeal for me. The beginning of album closer just sounds like it was thrown together in all honesty, and I am left wondering where we are going here yet still, soon enough we are drowning in that raging intensity that just will not relent.

In the liner notes in the CD booklet the band thank individuals for lending them bass amps, stepping in on gigs at the last minute and steering them clear of shitty contracts. That’s exactly how I would expect life to have been for these guys when the band was active and that harem-scarem ethos is worn proudly on Unstoppable Power.

I'm sure you are all familiar with that scene in Pulp Fiction when Vincent Vega hits Mia Wallace with an adrenaline shot after a heroin overdose and she sits bolt upright with a huge gasp. That was the effect this album had on me the first time I sleepily put it on just after waking up one morning. There is no subtlety here, there is no light and shade, this is nothing more or less than an adrenaline shot to the heart that will energise you and thrill you. Condor are a Norwegian three-piece and blackened thrash metal is their meat and drink, red and raw. The songs in themselves aren't especially memorable (and that isn't a criticism) - there are no melodic hooks or riffs for your brain to cling on to, the music is far too fast-paced for that, but they are aggressive and they are relentless and they feature some incendiary soloing which is probably what stands out most for me. For thirty-six minutes this album makes you feel like you are on a runaway train without any means of braking, holding on for dear life as it hurtles along. In a way it kind of reminds me of Reign in Blood, in that occasionally the band sound like they are barely holding it together and are on the verge of it all falling apart into chaos, but somehow they manage to maintain the integrity of the songs, which makes for a remarkably thrilling listen. Lyrically the songs mirror the music in that they deal with violence, horror and evil and Chris Sacrifice's ragged shrieking vocals perfectly fit in with this aesthetic. Condor have managed to pull off the extremely difficult trick of, to a certain extent, reproducing the sound of their heroes, such as Sodom, Kreator and Slayer whilst also making it sound modern and relevant to younger audiences as well as appealing to original fans of those bands.

Apparently Condor are members of the Kolbotn Thrashers Union, a loose grouping of thrash bands from the Kolbotn area of Norway, brought together by Fenriz of Darkthrone and include Nekromantheon who have released one of 2021's best thrash albums. In my opinion blackened thrash albums like Unstoppable Power and the aforementioned Nekromantheon's Visions of Trismegistos have saved thrash metal from it's twenty-year long sojourn in the wilderness and bands playing this style are now starting to sound relevant again. Long may it continue as these albums have made me enthusiastic about thrash metal once more.