Israeli metal scene, despite it is small and neglected, still alive and quite various: there are many Black Metal bands with some original views on this music, lots of Progressive Metal, -Core bands and many others. But today I want to introduce Thrash Metal band Strident with their upcoming release named March Of Plague.
Strident was formed in 2004 in Beer-Sheva, “the south capital” of Israel in the Negev desert. The band spent a few years for experimenting, line-up changes and demo records. In 2010 their debut album On The Aim was released (that time it was the first Israeli Thrash Metal album, by the way). The fan base was growing and Strident shared stages with Overkill and Nervosa. Today Strident are: Michael Shliapochny (guitar), Dmitry Samoylov (vocal), Artem Apekishev (bass) and Andrey Galchevski (drums).
Ok, let’s get back to the album: March Of Plague is not entirely Thrash Metal. Or more correctly it’s Thrash with fluctuations to Groove and Death Metal. Actually, the opener “No Faith No War” shows it brightly. Starting in the middle pace, it gains speed for a short time, turning to real Thrash Metal with fast riff and rapid solo. But already in the verse drums start with blast beats and a huge Death Metal attack falls down on the listener with Dmitry’s brutal vocal on the forefront. I’ll dare to say that it’s not singing: vocalist spews the words into the listener’s ears with low and aggressive roar. This vocal matches perfectly to such kind of music.
The title track “March Of Plague” suddenly goes Groove: there’s a good riff, strong Artem’s bass and somehow you can hear an Orient melody (although the song is about Great Plague in London 1665-1666). The chorus is also very groovy and catchy.
Of course there is some “pure” Thrash Metal in the album: “Be Metal” and the ending song “Thrash Till Death”. Both of them are quite fast and aggressive, with sharp solos. But mostly Strident prefer to mix things. “Final Warhead Blast” and “Spitfire” are greatly combine Thrash, Groove and quite melodic solos (suddenly). Short song “Nuclear Winter” starts as Thrash Metal but turns to Death very quickly, staying in this territory to the end. “Face To Face” is the fastest and the most solid song in this album, in my opinion. Looks like musicians wanted to show us all what they got: it’s fast, brutal and quite technical. In some moments the pace is slowing down, allowing to take a break and to fall on the listener with all its heaviness.
All in all, the album can be hardly called “experimental” or “breakthrough”. Strident took necessary components from Thrash, Death and Groove, mixed it masterfully in appropriate ratio and released the album, which just punches you in the face with its power and blows you out with its speed. So, if the name of the last song, “Thrash Till Death” isn’t an empty phrase for you and tells something, you should listen to the March Of Plague. And maybe attach Strident‘s patch to your battle jacket.
March Of Plague will be released on November, 29 via Punishment 18 Records.
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