By Francisco Zamudio
There’s no denying the resurgence of thrash and that’s no disrespect to the tons of great underground thrash bands that have been at it over the past, let’s say decade. There’s no shortage of modern age metal bands that incorporate the thrash sound, among many other styles crammed into a marketing cream pie. The thing most important is how thrash bands from the late ’80s and ’90s are still at it and going strong. Fist to fist, this helps the thrash scene grow. One such great band is Accuser coming out of Germany with their 11th full-length release, ‘The Mastery’.
For 10 solid tracks nearly peaking an hour, these guys demonstrate the seemingly effortless meld of modern and classic thrash. Smooth transitions with no wasted riffs or basic breakdowns. The vibe and sound coming off this record will be a good wake up call to those who listen to the same bands, especially those who listen to the same Ameri’core bands. ‘The Mastery’ gives you exactly what you like but breaks the conventional style that has restricted a lot of today’s metal, and incorporates a good feel of that famous European speed metal style. After all, they are from Germany.
Coming into their second release through Metal Blade, and nearly half a new line-up, now more than ever seems like the time for these guys to step up and get some more notoriety. There is no reason Accuser shouldn’t be on big tours with many of the current metal bands as well as those longstanding bands that are still grinding. Many of the songs on ‘The Mastery’ have that intense live feel that will get the crowd moving. All nearly averaging at 5 minutes with Frank Tomas’ raspy vocals, the rhythm section on bass and drums by Frank Kimpel and Olli Fechner (respectively) accenting every turn and driving it home, and dual solos that makes this a memorable album.
Rating: 8.5/10
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Record Label: Metal Blade
Release Date: January 26 2018
Track Listing:
01. Mission: Missile (4:15)
02. The Real World (4:33)
03. Solace in Sorrow (5:09)
04. Time for Silence (5:08)
05. My Skin (5:42)
06. Catacombs (4:47)
07. Mourning (5:22)
08. Ruthless (4:37)
09. Into the Black (4:02)
10. The Mastery (6:57)
Total Duration: 50:32
Accuser links: website | facebook