Labels: King Of The Monsters – Scorched Earth Policy
Review by: Alex Deller
So just the other morning I was singing merrily to myself in the shower when I realised that despite all the screaming music I’d bought lately, there hadn’t been pure metal in a while. It’d all been emo, screamo, doom, sludge blah blah blah, and there was a gaping hole that needed to be filled somehow, a ravening hunger that all the toast and coffee in the world wouldn’t cure. And lo and behold, as I dripped my way through the house towards my bedroom lay a parcel of records on the stairs, oh so innoccuous wrapped in brown paper but housing, amongst others, this slavering beast.
Kapow! Grandiose and hyper-technical, hoarsely screamed vocals and borderline pompous, albeit in the best possible way. This kind of reminds me of a more frenetic At The Gates (is it just a coincidence that these guys share their name with an ATG song? I think not…), riffs which you know are heavy but can actually hum to yourself because they’re nevertheless that darn melodic. Then there’s the cleanly-picked bits, but never any respite from the screamy vocals, but, hey, who the hell wants respite when the going’s this good?
All in all, precise, brutal annd utterly fucking ferocious. Snap it up!