Even without reading up on Broken Edge, I’d guessed they were formed in the late 80s or early 90s. Such is their metal style. This EP follows three album releases from the Frenchmen, who quote Pantera and Machine Head and of course have “le look” to go with it.

So off we go with “Kill Your Gods”. It’s thrash metal pure and not entirely simple as there’s some flamboyant guitar work to go with the main riff and thunderous backing. Fast and hard, it’s well co-ordinated and the sign of a band who have been around for a while. The movement continues with “Marching with the Fools”. The flourishing guitar work is there but this is more technical and dark. This said, I didn’t find it a very engaging song. “Stone Cold Evil” has a strong structure. Laden with breaks and melodic technicality, I could see there’s an anthemic quality about the choruses of this album. As “Glory to Chaos” takes us to a yet darker and sludgier level, it occurred to me that this was like a slightly more melodic version of Entombed. After another technical and anthemic thrash-a-thon in “I Will Come Again”, the end is reached with the title track. I’m not sure we’ve made much progress here. Relentless as ever, the track “Unleash My Soul” is more of the same. The vocalist rams it all down our throat like a toddler being force fed its food.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with “Unleash my Soul” and there was some interesting guitar work but I had a sense of déjà vu when listening to it. It’s proper heavy metal and credit to Broken Edge, I suppose, for following their path but in the overall scheme of things, it’s neither original nor special.

(5/10 Andrew Doherty)

www.brokenedge.com