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Carpet Bomb – Awaken Terror

carpet bomb – awaken terror

Info

Apart from two previously released online singles, ‘Awaken Terror’ is the debut from this Phoenix, Arizona, USA-based Thrash Metal trio. The band doesn’t mince words, with a cover like this one, you pretty much know what to expect…

Referencing a slightly less sophisticated Ed Repka print, the cover of ‘Awaken Terror’ indeed shows exactly what the band stands for: late 80s Thrash Metal of the evil kind. And with a total playing time of just barely 24 minutes, they unleash a carpet of bombs on you that the United Nations could summon an emergency session for. The spirit of this band is definitely right, everything about this first album shows that they have done their best to reflect their sources of inspiration, their favourite albums, totally unconcerned with trends or other modernities. But while the atmosphere and intentions are undoubtedly good, the execution is certainly not without flaws in all cases. The sound is a bit flat, with the guitars lacking the right sharpness and heaviness. The bass guitar is, remarkably enough, a tad too loud as well as some parts of the drums (cymbals). Maybe it is a matter of taste, but as a whole, it feels that it requires much more of a snapping power that Thrash Metal of this type so desperately needs. Just like with the old records of Heathen, Evildead, Lääz Rockit, Kreator, Realm and Vio-Lence, the the speed and aggression is right there, not quite being modern “grooving Thrash Metal”, but it really lacks a bit of that unforgiving viciousness that those records do possess.  It might also be a matter of taste, but the occasional groovy riff is also feel a little out of place. That is already evident in the first tracks, but the perfect example for this is the title track of the album, which ends in a bit of a modern day sort of grooving piece. That particular part also happens to have a lot of cymbals which are put way too loud in the mix.

The above may well come across as more negative than it is actually meant to be. Carpet Bomb has certainly managed to put a nice debut album on the table, but I can’t quite shake off the feeling that the band would have done better to demo some more first, to simply fine-tune the song writing a little, but more importantly to experiment a bit with recordings and the intended sound. There is nothing wrong with Carpet Bomb’s musical direction and intention, it just all needs a little tweaking. So, in short: I look forward to their next effort

Carpet Bomb

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