Review Summary: An album that goes through the motions while ultimately doing nothing
There has to be something to say abut a band coming back together after this long to put together an album. On one hand, you get a great band once again coming back to play great music, on the other, one can't help but note that there's a lot of pressure to put an album that is pure status quo with nothing really good or special about it. That's really what this is. Death Angel's
High if you will.
The thrashers on this album, "Thrown To The Wolves", "Thicker Than Blood", and "Prophecy" are really good songs and Rob Cavestany and Ted Anguilar's guitars still thrash hard after all these years. These are probably the songs you should get instead of the whole album.
Mark Osegueda's vocals haven't stood the test of time though. He's really lost his high range, so he's done this squealing thing whenever he wants to do a scream. Maybe that's why they've stuck a lot of dull filler songs like 5 Steps Of Freedom, Never Me, and Famine.
The worst offender on the entire album though is the end song, "Word To The Wise", where they try and do a power ballad. It really falls flat though, the whole song sounds like a Seether song, and hell he even sounds the buttrock part in this.
And the most frustrating thing about the album here is that it HAD the power to be a lot better, the lead riffs are always top-notch, but everything else is so mid-tempo and droning that it just doesn't matter. The Drums and rhythm guitar never go past a light gallop and Osugueda's lyrics are really repetitive and slow. You can see where they wanted "The Devil Incarnate" to be like "One" or "Good Mourning/Black Friday" and where "Famine" wanted to be "Peace Sells" but what they forgot was you need a lot of energy to make a thrash song incredible.
Avoid.
