2018 saw the release of the debut album Warning Blast, by international band Siege of Power. I mean with a band name, named after one of the best Napalm Death songs ever-you cannot go wrong. Featuring members of Asphyx, Autopsy, Grand Supreme Blood Court, Hail of Bullets, Infidel Reich…I mean I can go on and on.
Chris Reifert on vocals, “Bathory” Bob Bagchus on drums, Theo van Eekelen on bass, and Paul Baayens on guitar. The veteran supergroup returns with their second album This Is Tomorrow to bludgeon us with their death/thrashy madness with moments of doom/death and a little black metal if you will.
“Force Fed Fear” starts with the Holy Shit moment right off the jump with the isolated guitar riff then right into the old-school death thrashy madness. Reifert actually sounds more black metal than anything else with his vocals until he grunts the song title in his gruff death metal putrid vocal delivery. The song is unbelievably fun and will have you thinking of bands like: Sodom/Bathory/Destruction/Autopsy.
“Sinister Christians” is up next and I love the song’s name. Hysterical..but hey I am damn sure the lot of us know some damn sinister Christians out there..maybe some in our own damn families! The slowdown at the 1.15 part is exceptional and then traverses into the death thrash gallop. This song has 1987 written all over it and Refiert’s vocals are more akin to his vocal attack with Autopsy. He sounds extra filthy on this track and Bob is keeping the beat, similar to his other band Infidel Reich (Please release another album-I love the band). Excellent melodic moments and Paul proves why he is one of the best guitarists in all of death metal. The man eats riffs for breakfast. He is the Gary Holt of Netherlands death metal. The amount of riffs he’s written in past bands, well…it’s just about enough to make you crap your pants. I cannot forget Theo, another veteran, and his thumping bass guitar adds the perfect bottom heaviness, which creates a thicker overall sound. “Oblivion” is a pretty fast song that just erupts right from the starting gates. Reifert’s vocal style is like German thrash metal vocalists-with the abrupt barking and berating style, on this song.
“Deeper Wounds” is the longest song at six minutes and this is a tune drenched in atmospheric heaviness, with influences of doom/death but black metal too. This song has Bathory Under the Sign of the Black Mark all over it with the fuzzy distorted guitar and a little of later Soulburn to it as well. You can discern the riffs quite well and this is my favorite song on the album, because UTSOTBM, from Bathory, is one of my favorite albums of all time.
Siege of Power’s This Is Tomorrow is an excellent and better follow-up to the debut. The debut is great, however, the production on the new album is better and the music is played tighter. If you need an old-school fix with a modern sound, played by some of the most important, IMO, musicians in all of death metal-than you best stop fucking around and get this at once.
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