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I
bought
Ares Kingdom’s Return to Dust lp from the Nuclear
War Now store a couple of months back. It was on sale.
That was the reason. I knew nothing about the band.
After listening to it once I was surprised by how solid
it was. Their mix of thrash and death metal doesn’t
alienate neither camp. It’s aggressive enough to have
shelf space along any other brutal band and yet it is
jumpy and melodic enough to beat a few thrash classics
at their own game.
Incendiary
follows suit four years after their last full-length. If you
liked them back then, you’ll love them now. If anything the
songs are more immediate and the punch of their music is
greater. But nothing has been sacrificed. Not the rawness of
their sound, nor the immediacy of Chuck Keller’s guitars and
monster songwriting. It’s hard to listen to Ares Kingdom and
not wonder why is it that they aren’t more well-known. These
are clearly consummate musicians. Their chops are all over, but
there is no useless wankery around. Just songs. Flawless thrash
death metal tunes.
“The
Destruction of Sennacherib” may be the most anthemic and easy
going Ares Kingdom will ever be. It is also a gorgeous
instrumental that segues into the galloping straight forward
punch of “Silent Mortal Flesh”. The drumming of Mike Miller as
usual sounds choppy and makes it all sound so Teutonic. And the
vocals of Alex Blume are the epitome of crudity, a live stench
emanates from the speakers as he bitterly spews bile about
whatever it is that their lyrics are about. According to their
Metal Archives page, Ares Kingdom deal with history, warfare,
determination and strength.
Get into the
album. Read the liner notes and one point surfaces; it was
produced by Chuck Keller. He has also written all the music and
lyrics and has had a hand in the ‘layout concept’ and in
‘lyric calligraphy’. So it’s his prize to take home. The
album is not so guitar centric as to scream ‘Malmsteen’
to high heavens but like 85% of metal records it is a guitar
record. And what a guitar record it is.
It is absolutely appropriate that Ares Kingdom not for one
second sound over produced. That makes the songs more metal,
gives them a live feel and denotes certain desire to remain
within certain boundaries. I may be wrong, but Ares Kingdom need
just get a tad bigger. These songs are so good they shall serve
to launch them as far as they wish.
Official Site
MySpace
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