RATBREED – Evoke The Blaze

  • 7.5/10
    RATBREED - Evoke The Blaze - 7.5/10
7.5/10

Summary

Inverse Records
Release date: July 13, 2018

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Evoke The Blaze, the debut album from Finland’s Ratbreed, features eight originals and, on the digital version, a well-turned cover of Warlock’s “I Rule The Ruins”. Warlock is a band they clearly revere, with vocalist Jasmin Anglen evoking not only the blaze but also Doro Pesch’s sound and phrasing in many passages on this very solid Metal album. Ratbreed is no clone band, though. Kicking off with the thrashy “Escape From The Asylum”, they charge ahead with a frill-free twin guitar assault that sounds hits with a seventies tone but played at an eighties speed—a combination that manages to make Ratbreed sound contemporary. “Hunting High, Reaping Low” follows, galloping from verse to verse into a slower but no less exciting chorus.

The rhythm section is interesting; drummer Mikko Toivonen likes Clive Burr-esque cymbal rides and incorporates a lot of bell work in his playing. ”Gates Of The Underworld”, one of the best tracks on the album, builds around a fat riff that sounds like it could have come off Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All”, but also incorporates a whirling dervish bridge and solo, as well as some fretwork from bassist Lauri Palmunen. “Unhallowed Sleep” is another winner; as is “Mad World”, with only the last original, “Through The Flames” coming across as a stock Metal number, more plodding and with less dynamic thrust the preceding tracks—at least until the midpoint solos, where Mikko Kaipainen and Markus Taipale cut loose. Evoke The Blaze is worth repeated listens, sure to add some heat to the summer.

TUNE INTO METALEXPRESSRADIO.COM at NOON & MIDNIGHT (EST) / 6:00 & 18:00 (CET) TO HEAR THE BEST TRACKS FROM THIS UPCOMING RELEASE!!!

Author

  • Daniel Waters

    Daniel was a reviewer here at Metal Express Radio. Iron Maiden’s Piece Of Mind wasn’t the first Metal album he owned, but it was the one that lifted the lid off his soul when he received the record as a gift on his 15th birthday. He's been a Metal fan ever since. He's probably best known as the author of various Young Adult novels such as the Generation Dead series and the ghost story Break My Heart 1,000 Times, now also a major motion picture entitled I Still See You, starring Bella Thorne. Writing and music, especially Heavy Metal music, has always been inextricably linked in his mind and career. His first paid gig doing any type of writing was for Cemetery Dance, where he wrote a horror-themed music column called Dead Beats, and when he was writing the first Generation Dead novel he had a ritual where he started his writing day with a Metal playlist that kicked off with “Crushing Belial” by Shadows Fall.

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