Zespół: SHACKLES
Tytuł: Traitors' Gate
Producent: Hells Headbangers
Format: LP
Kraj: Australia
Kategoria: Death Metal / Thrash Metal
Opis produktu:
9 utworów thrashującego death metalu z Australii w barwach HELLS HEADBANGERS.
Doskonała porcja staroszkolnego black/thrash/death metalu w stylu DESTROYER 666, KREATOR, ABSU, DESASTER, SODOM, HOBBS' ANGEL OF DEATH.
Diabolical Conquest:
I feel like I have retrieved an old Sextrash tape which a couple of decades back I had stashed away safely from my parents in a secret drawer in my basement along with dirty porn magazines. Ah, thrash metal that sounds honest and genuine, oblivious to and unaffected by so many trends over the years. The damp storage environment and layers of dust only seem to have enhanced its old charm, rendered it filthier.
But Shackles aren't a band from the late ‘80s. They formed in 2000 and Traitors' Gate is their first (and sadly the last) album. If you have a problem with that, I suggest you pretend they existed much before the post-millennium thrash revival, for Shackles are really that good and convincing. Their music is influenced by early works of Teutonic thrash bands such as Sodom and Kreator and American thrash bands like Slayer and Possessed with a filthy coating of the unabashedly corrupted and libidinous South American bands. It's mostly the latter influence which makes the band cheekily proclaim they play “Slut Metal” as opposed to the “Virgin Metal” style of music of one of the earliest and most influential bands from their country, Hobbs' Angel of Death, though they pretty much just played thrash metal in the vein of Slayer only sounding cleaner.
Having managed to achieve the sound they were aiming for, they are not poor excuses for musicians either, getting the work done sloppily hoping that will go with the whole sound. These guys are actually skilled musicians for a change. Songs are classically structured with mostly mid-paced and slower parts. Instead of repeating riffs for emphasis, they believe in the progression of the song which they do instinctively, relying on the feel rather than shredding frantically for the heck of it. In one aspect Shackles outdo even the aforementioned bands: the way they weave romantic melodies into their depraved and horny style of music. It's most notable when they are playing leads. Some of those are brilliant; flowing leads that you would wish would never stop and it's here that your wish comes closest to being fulfilled. It's almost unfair to find them in a form of music this perverted, almost like a shabby cheating husband having a beautiful sensible and understanding woman for a wife. How did such sweet youthful leads find their way into such a sleazy old album? Some of them are wistfully melodic, as if the lead guitarist is yearning for his one true love losing whom he turned into an incorrigible sex pest. Far worse than him is the vocalist, delivering rasps with a wide, tongue-flickering lascivious grin – he's probably the reason why women in some parts of the world still insist on wearing burkhas.
Shackles' music is not groundbreaking but it's a great blend of the old thrash styles. Admittedly, it may be too mild-mannered for this generation, but then an act of outright molestation which the newer rabid thrash bands indulge in may not be as sickening as the aging members of Shackles masturbating with their hands inside their pockets at a public function leching at girls old enough to be their daughters. This is classic thrash that oozes raw sex appeal. In 2009, it doesn't get better than this.
Lista utworów:
1. Coiled in Sin
2. Iron Crosses
3. Malignant Expulsion
4. Traitors Gate
5. Cat O Nine Tails
6. Exorcised Remains
7. Exhumed From a Watery Grave
8. Shackled
9. Orgy of Corpses
