The family who play together slay together. Well that could well be the case here as I note that three members of this Perfect Killing Machine share the same surname. Active firstly as Naracus since 95 and then as Lipid, these Danish bruisers may have split up for a few years but are now active again. With one album ‘Deliver us From Evil’ via Copro back in 2006 they have been picked up by Great Dane Records giving their independently released second album a new lease of life.

We are taken into the rampage with ‘Dead For The Rest Of Your Life’ and this quickly identifies itself as thrash with its Slayerised riffing and chugging demeanour. Vocals are suitably beefy and bellowed out with conviction. At times I’m reminded of Pro-Pain due to them and musically this isn’t a million miles away from the likes of country-folk Hatesphere. One thing Lipid seem to like is throwing out some spiralling lead guitar work into their songs which breaks up the rampant brutality and allows things to breathe. Melody is also emphasised by this and the clattering drums and battering pace of the title track give you plenty of scope for banging your head along to things. The bounce and rhythm of this one actually reminds a bit of Ministry classic NWO but Lipid ain’t bringing any new world order to their thrashy chops and fans of the style needn’t worry much about any sort of diversification from the genre’s classic sound. After the catchy tenacity of the hook laden ‘Before The Storm’ an ill-fitting short instrumental piece seems completely out of place and just breaks up the flow as far as I’m concerned.

Back with more boisterous ballast in the form of ‘Wreck Of The Past’ the fast-flowing lead work and thumping bounce of the song provides plenty of neck wrecking action and by now the style of the band will be pretty much embedded in your head. Unfortunately, one thing I find a major distraction is when it is evident that songs are not recorded in the same session when they sound quite different in the production stakes. Here the group obviously felt the need to do just this with ‘Fragments Of Eternity’ which lacks the important clout and volume of everything that came before it. I can’t help thinking they didn’t have quite enough for an album here and wanted to ensure it didn’t quite fall below the half-hour running time. It just made it all a little on the patchy side for me and I would have expected something that flowed together and was more fully realised after a gap of 17 years between albums.

So a proficient but far from perfect killing machine in my book. Still there’s some good songs here and no doubt the return of the band will appeal to thrash purists who check them out.

(6/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/LipidThrash

https://greatdanerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-perfect-killing-machine