REMORSE – D.Ü.H.

The leading Hungarian Metal Label, Hammer Records (and Nail records, that is a sub label of Hammer) can pride themselves in being one of the best addresses in the Hungarian music scene. But still it is surprising, how many good bands they find of almost any style, in that comparatively small country. It seems that it is also quite fashionable to sing in Hungarian language, so that many of the releases reviewed here will be completely unknown to most listeners.

Remorse is no exception. D.Ü.H. is the newest album of what seems to be one of the leading Thrash bands in Hungary, who even played with Exodus and Testament before. Unfortunately, not much can be said about the band and the band members other than that these are five guys making a lot of noise, with a singer and one of the guitarists also providing vocals. This is their second album after 2005’s Harc. All information available is in Hungarian language, but with an album of this quality, it is probably our loss more than theirs.

The reason for that is that this album contains not a single weak track, maybe with the exception of the acoustic intro which cannot be counted, as it is not too bad by itself, but somehow seems out of place as it shows no similarities to the 12 smashers to come. Yes, it is true: no ballad, the guys only throw punches, and never reach out to help one back up. The first song shows the direction with a heavy Bay Area Thrash riff, but also a memorable chorus. It would probably help to speak Hungarian to remember the songs better, but catchy melodies are omnipresent even in the hardest of songs.

Song number two, “Eg Veled”, reminds the listener of Testament during the Practice What You Preach era, and several other songs and riffs breath the air of Exodus, but still with those tiny reminiscences the band can not be categorized as just another Thrash band. Remorse are not shy of experiments and outside influences, so is “Amikor Vege 2” not a typical Thrash song, but rather traditional Heavy Metal with a strong melody and an almost classical part before the solo, and “Harcra Fel” shows a lot of Power Metal influences and guitar harmonies unusual for Thrash, but contains a great chaotic Thrash solo.

But in spite of those examples, most songs remain solidly rooted in Thrash. The album is very entertaining as the pace is varied nicely between the songs, and the vocals are also versatile, if that is because Imre Ráczkevi is such a great singer, or the vocals are shared by singer and lead guitarist is impossible to say, but the result is very satisfactory. During the last track “Kin” even deep growls and Black Metal-nagging is included in their music.

Other than that, many tracks on D.Ü.H. could be described as a melodic version of Exodus. And is that not something everybody craves for?