Do you know what really sucks? What really sucks is that as many bands are in the spotlight right now, there are ten times as many bands that have never seen the light of day, popularity-wise. Some of those bands aren’t popular for a reason, but other bands out there are real gems and some of them deserve the spotlight far more than the current popular band. All Out War is one such band. They’ve been going since 1991 and have never changed their sound. This is 8 years before Botch released
We Are The Romans and 6 years before Converge released
Caring And Killing. Until a few weeks ago I never heard a peep about these guys. I blame Victory Records.
Let me just say straight off the bat that if you like
We Are The Romans, chances are you will like this. It therefore goes without saying that if you like Converge, chances are you will like these guys. They all went down the same road, but All Out War seem to be more reserved in how they do things. They are much less chaotic and thus easier to listen to. That being said, these guys also sound somewhat like early Slayer, if only instrumentally.
This similarity is immediately obvious in
Curtain Call For The Crucified’ where the mind is bound to be drawn to
Angel Of Death, especially the bridge section from that song. Even some of the solos are directly ripped from
Reign In Blood, albeit not as fast and painful sounding, but they still sound like they were stolen from some old Slayer demos.
As bad as that may sound, I wouldn’t call it a con. Although I do crave originality in music, it’s still nice to return to the glory days of thrash metal when the Big 4 were all going strong and hadn’t succumbed to the mainstream.
Fortunately the vocals have not been taken from the 80s, and all the better for it. Though they once again sound similar to Botch, they still stand well on their own and do have their own uniqueness. They retain a lot of raw emotion about them due to their forced nature and more evil texture. Glancing at the track list, you shouldn’t be surprised to know that almost all of the songs on offer here focus on religion or the government. They never claimed to be poets, and the lyrics do have a monotony about them but who honestly cares? This is All Out War, not William Blake.
From what I gather, metalcore has a large following on this site, the previously mentioned bands in particular. If I am right in saying that, then hopefully this band will have an equally large fanbase before long. They certainly deserve it. The band has this to say about
Assassins In The House Of God, ‘If you see it, steal it’. Good advice, I say.
4/5
To kill for God is not divine
The slaughter of the innocent
And the rape of the weak
Is this divinity?
Is this the kingdom you seek?
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