Review Summary: Unknown thrash band Dragon get a lot right on their fourth studio album, despite a rather lackluster vocal performance
Thrash metal is a genre that many believed to be dead by the mid-1990's, and many of the bands that had populated the genre decided to abandon ship and sail toward more commercially-oriented waters. However, there are many exceptions to this rule, and underground Polish thrash metal outfit Dragon are one of these. This band is one that is more in-line with the death thrash movement, although it has considerably more of a traditional thrash metal sound to it aside from the rough vocals. Poland isn't really a country known for its metal bands aside from the obvious artists such as Vader and tech-death band Decapitated, but Dragon are one band that would have given their country a little more reputation had they ever made it. Unfortunately, they never broke out of the underground and remain a band that very few people have heard.
Dragon's style of thrash metal involves a lot of mid-paced chord based riffs as well as a heavy usage of the cymbal in the drumming. Their faster sections are often driven by groove beats such as in the second half of the first proper song of the album, Return, whilst the guitar work remains in more of a mid-tempo style, although occasionally tremolo picked guitar lines are played. This is also an album that has many Slayer-sounding galloping riffs that keep this feeling energetic and varied, and the constantly audible bass playing adds to this by deviating from the norm of thrash metal (following the guitars) and actually makes an effort to do something different. One of the most interesting songs for the instrumental performances would be Looking For The Death, which kicks in with an interesting fast paced guitar line and cool-sounding beat before constantly evolving throughout, involving a lot of tremolo picking at times.
Guitar solos are not used as heavily here as the average Slayer or Megadeth album but they are still present and correct. They are primarily the shredding style that most thrash bands adapted, ditching any preconceptions of melody that one might have garnered from the cacophony of well-written sounds that are on display. One thing that is clear from the beginning of this release is the ambition behind it: it is clear that this band really aimed to create something enjoyable and yet challenging for them to play. For saying this is a band that only played five shows during the entire year of release, this band clearly enjoys showing off, with some incredibly technical bass lines found on Crying Woman, Looking For The Death and Death from Agony. The chord-based guitar work and heavily palm-muted riffs to the former of those three songs in particularly show up many bands in terms of technicality.
The vocals here are probably the only thing that truly holds the album back. Whilst the rest of the band are enjoying themselves with their quick runs up their fret boards and creative drumming, the vocals just sound monotonous and lack any of the fury one would expect from a death-thrash band. If one wants a vocalist that embodies the rough, gruff style that Tom Woryna was aiming for on this release, then I recommend Max Cavalera of Sepultura and Soulfly fame. Still, this is a solid dose of thrash metal that should satisfy the appetite of the most rabid thrash fan with ease and is possibly the band's strongest release to date.
