I was pleased when I read that this, the third album release from Enforced, was “an aggressive, no frills thrash record”. The previous album “Kill Grid” (2021) was exactly that, and I loved it. On the basis of that album I would gladly have gone to watch them play live, except for the minor inconvenience of having to travel to the USA to do so.
Off we go again at sizzling speed. To a deep and menacing guitar and hammering drums, it’s a growly race. I know I compared to Enforced to Dew Scented last time but it’s there. “Aggressive Menace”, which opens proceedings, does enjoy a break and Enforced pump a bit slower, and then it ends. I’m not sure if “The Quickening” is an invitation to go yet faster but that’s the title of the next song. I’d link this with fire and riffage rather than pace. After a measured start, all hell breaks loose and by the end we’ve been torn apart and are out of breath – stirring stuff. So is “Hanged By Hand”, another typical twisty thrash n roll affair. Enforced know to inject extra colour into a song, here featuring a dazzling but not overdone solo and a dark and heavy section on the home stretch. From more attentive guitar work “Avarice” flies away into breath-taking excitement and energy. The guitar on the title song digs a deep groove. The drummer steps up the pace and once again the race is on, but without leaving behind the melody and a display of guitar magic and power. This album is far more than a thrash assault. The songs transform in shape, are ultra-solid in the riff department, are masterpieces in control, and manage to be exciting and crowd-pleasing.
“Mercy Killing Fields” is one of many anthems. “Nation of Fear” is designed for us to move and groove. After two minutes of solid riffage, Enforced strip it down and put us in suspense before launching into a further minute of deeply heavy melody. Time for some basic thrash: on comes “Ultra Violence”. It’s reminiscent of The Haunted, at least until the solo. The riff of “Starve” imprints itself on our brain before Enforced play their game of plunging into darkness and mystery. Out of the other side comes more rampant thrash – perhaps predictable but this band knows what it’s good at and how to please us, and this is it. Sparks fly, the vocalist shouts, we bang our heads in time and the juggernaut moves on. Take it or leave it. The album closes with “Empire”. Momentary doom leads to the anticipated avalanche of melodic thrash and stellar instrumental chicanery. Fast, hard, energetic and with its passages bound together, it’s another example of Enforced’s skill and technique.
It’s the fluid structures and the instrumental subtleties within the songs which give this album so much quality. “War Remains” is power-packed but is multi-dimensional with its changes of tempo and style in catchy songs which already exude energy. Darker passages find themselves blending into rampant scenes. This is thrash metal but of the highest and most exciting order.
(9/10 Andrew Doherty)
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