SHATTERPOINT – Dead Precedence

This might be a very one-minded point of view: Thrash Metal is a genre dominated by “dinosaurs” like Slayer, or the never dying (seemingly never minding which lineup climbs to the stage) Sepultura these days. Ah well, Soulfly should be called too, but… their core consisted of former Sepultura members and now there’s the Cavalera Conspiracy — well, consisting of former Soulfly members. Confusing!

Despite these slightly exaggerated thoughts, there are still bands trying to make a stand in this – in terms of big names – mostly deserted branch of music. And so Shatterpoint, hailing in from Toronto Canada, recently put their first long player Dead Precedence on the market.

Grunting, shouting, blasting riffs, whirling solos, loads of doublebase and tempo changes –- might be the “in one sentence” description for Dead Precedence. Shane Drake (vocals, rhythm guitars), Greg Wright (lead guitars), Chris Zeeman (bass), and Steve Mitchell listened closely to their forefathers, but also present characteristics of brutal Thrash. Parallels to many bands could be, but shouldn’t be, drawn in terms of creating a burden maybe too heavy to bear in the long run. “Maybe,” because this is eminent: the acoustic waves sent out by this long player will hit your face like a rock loaded truck. It’s breathing the spirit of Thrash: play it hard, play it loud, play it on a high technical level, but don’t let it get too complicated.

A few minutes into this album and you will wear your shabby, worn out sleeveless shirts again, raising a beer-canned fist, banging your head… all at three o’clock in the afternoon. Track number three, “Thorn Inside,” for example, will attack your neck and eardrums right away. Tom Araya, Max Cavalera and Co., greet from the first minute on. Furthermore, this song represents the rock solid job done on production by Greg Dawson, who also worked with bands like Moneen and The End. For Shatterpoint, this cooperation is surely not the exitus, but the real beginning.

The but(t)

There’s not only an upside to this one… Dead Precedence sometimes seems to lack a bit of creativity and over-uses the clean singing thing. You simply can’t pull off a fifteen track right-away-killer-album! This Olympus has to be climbed slowly, and maybe the old gods will hail to Shatterpoint — not right now, but certainly in the future.