Here’s Prosthetic’s entry into the thrash ‘revival’, Japan’s Grief of War, and their debut offering, A Mounting Crisis…As Their Fury Got Released. Originally, the album was released through a small label in Tokyo in 2005. As expected, it’s a complete trip back to the mid 80’s, mainly paying homage to early Slayer.

Now, I know that most thrash really isn’t all that technical or real flashy in the skill dept, but Grief of War display almost none. The riffs seem generic, and drag on or are repeated for too long without any little change ups to keep them from being monotonous and the vocals are just plain bad at times, while at others they’re just kinda ‘there’.

From the opening of “Hatred Burns” (after its sample track of chaos) with it’s long winded high-end scream that reminds of Slayer’s “Angel of Death”, I knew I was in for some amateurish thrash, immediately thinking “3rd tier Slayer clone”. “Rat Race”, “Don’t Walk Away” and “Blind from the Facts” are a step in the right direction though, as they seem tighter, better constructed and have some nice riffing, even if still sounding like a Slayer cover band. “Sown by Greed” is slower, generic and sports some of those terrible vocals I spoke of prior. Album closer “The Judgment Day” tries to hit upon that slow, eerie, epic mark that is songs such as “Spill the Blood” or “Seasons in the Abyss”, but fails miserably. The rest of the album (“Distrust”, “Eternal Curse”, “Resist” and “Blood Lust”) are just disjointed, haphazard, generic and well, not good.

Grief of War could potentially be a good thrash band, but first they’ll need to branch out from their Slayer worship some (because Slayer is too obvious and way overdone) and brush up on their chops a bit. In the meantime, thrash fans can find much better new material out there from the likes of Warbringer, Hyades, Avenger of Blood or especially Death Angel.

[Visit the band's website]

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