It’s a new release from Comatose Music, the North Carolina label that continues to bring to stand firm in bringing you an unfiltered stream of brutal death metal. And some pretty damn good CD specials too, such as the current “buy three get two free” deal. But I digress…as usual. Right, the new release! It’s a major departure from the aforementioned stream. That’s a straight up lie! The stream keeps on flowing with Annihilation of Races from Spain’s Thirst of Revenge, the one-man death machine project of Carlos Mejias (all instruments, composition, co-production, lyrics co-writer) and it’s a decent can of carnage, if a little lacking in terms of multi-dimensionality.

The short of it is that on Annihilation of Races Mejias offers up 10 tracks of solid brutal death metal (not the slam variety) that is pretty well written if not overly diverse. However, it is not entirely a one-trick pony either, as the guitar performances are fairly strong and the harmonizing works quite well in several spots.  In fact, the middle of the album – “Spectral Sounds of a Quiet Night,” “Deprecated Homicide,” and the title track – sees Thirst of Revenge bringing more in the way of arrangement dynamics to the table, which helps to make it more than just a blur of blast ‘n growl death. Whether it is a well placed break down, a gnarly bass line, or a notable riff, Mejias clearly put some thought into the songwriting.  “The Spell of Evil” succeeds for much the same reason, in this case a well written harmony.

As a whole, Annihilation of Races has an aura of menace that goes well with the detailed lyrics that when all is said and done point to the basic hopelessness of the human race. The artwork adds even more to that vibe. Thirst of Revenge’s Annihilations of Races is not for everyone, but it does offer a bit more in the way of musicality for those not typically enamored with brutal death metal. In short, I can’t quite rave about it, but I do like what Carlos Mejias has done here.

[Visit the band's website]

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