Violent Definition – Progressive Obsoletion
Band: Violent Definition
Title: Progressive Obsoletion
Label: I Hate Records
Release date: November 15th, 2024
Country: Greece
Format reviewed: High-Quality Digital Recording
The main power of Thrash Metal is, in my opinion, that it can shake you in a violent manner like a storm, riffs get through you and infest your brain and they make you headbang like a maniac, even move your whole body frantically, without control, because you are possessed by the fast tempos and the aggressive display of music.
And that’s what the new album by Violent Definition is about. By listening to these 9 tracks you’ll be pulled to a mosh pit in order to derangedly thrash during 45 minutes. Maybe you won’t have much time to breathe, or to even take a brief rest. But we all will rest when we die, so don’t worry about it.
Just pressed the “Play” button of the first song and oh, it’s an instrumental intro, and it sounds promising: guitars are played very technically, there’s a prominent bass sounding there, drums play not bland patterns at all, and I feel anticipation for what will come next. And I’m not deceived at all: “Justified Ferocity” is a short and killer track, riffs at full velocity will destroy your brain and the solo shows the technical level of Nick Psarogiannis with his axe. There’s great work done by the lead guitar all through the album.
As you’ll notice, George Balios, the man at vocals, is not called IronBeast for nothing. His voice sounds ultra raspy, he is also the vocalist in Mentally Defiled and in Torture, two other Greek Thrash Metal bands, so he’s not new at this task. He imprints a lot of aggression to the songs, as it must be in this genre, his rough voice tells you stories about humanity failure and sort of “cosmic experimentation”, death, the afterlife and also some antireligious stuff, all seasoned with a total hopelessness and a fatal destiny for mankind, because humans are destroying our planet and also ourselves. “Onwards to the void of this progressive obsoletion”, this is a phrase I think it’s pretty accurate to resume the sense of this album… because there’s no hope, no future at all.
If there’s a word to describe Giannis Votsis work at drums it is “bashing whirlwind” (well these are two words, but who cares?). His nickname is Maelstrom, and right from the start you’ll notice why. He totally destroys his drum kit and shows no mercy delivering a crazy repertoire of hits and kicks, all at an insane speed. Giannis is involved in many bands of different styles, and he proves to be a very experienced drummer.
And, about the bass… what an amazing work Chris Zoukas does with his instrument. I like the way it vibrates in each song, the mixing has given it some extra dominance and the album gains in depth and pulsation. Really wise choice.
I particularly like a lot the way some songs start building anticipation with a mid-soft start, like in “The Last Grain in Your Hourglass”, kind of menacing riffs with the deep plucked bass notes, and restrained but technical drums, and after a minute there’s something saying “hey, let’s do this more heavy”, and near the third minute here’s the whirl totally unleashed. This is a very good song flowing in the right way.
Some other songs start mercilessly like a blow to the head, “Children of God” is one of these. Almost 7 minutes of pure old school Thrash, I’m totally in the mood for this kind of stuff. Guitars gallop frantically as if it was the end of the world, so the song runs at a fast speed. Gotta love it…
If you’re looking for a very good Thrash album with some crazy technicalities at playing, this is definitely for you. Violent Definition makes great again the spirit of Thrash Metal from the 90s, their oldschool sound will keep you headbanging from start to finish. 9/10 by Sílvia
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