Band: BAD VICTIM
Country: Czech Republic
Title: Sira a Chlad
Label: Independent
Year: 2019
Style: Groove Thrash Death Metal
Review:
This album seems to be totally aimed at the Czech and Slovak public only as pretty much everything here is in Czech, the CD booklet is totally useless to a non-Czech speaking listener, except for "kytara" I wasn't able to identify any members of the band with their respective instrument although they are all listed, obviously. This often happens with some Russian releases, but it never happened to me for a Czech CD to be completely in their native language, not even one bit in English. Anyway, talking about this band's apparently third studio album, we're treated with 9 tracks in 35 minutes of playing time, with the opening track perfectly mimicking Sepultura in their Chaos AD period, with only the vocals different, two layers, with the first one being distorted, almost growling vocals, and backing screams. Not a good start I'd say: to remind so much of a legend is not the best way to open your album, or at least I wouldn't do it. Instead I would have opened with the last track, Leva Strana Srdce, which is also the best on this album in my opinion. The rest of the album, case by case, adds even more Death Metal touches or more Groove, more Hardcore, and the final result, a mid-tempo Groove Thrash Death Metal, despite the heavy, fresh, quite modern production, sounds out-dated, dusty and at times monotone; at least for me not understanding the lyrics made a huge difference here. What saves from time to time are the clever guitar leads, but not enough to make me revisit this album anytime soon, sorry. Give it a listen and make up your own mind, at least the presentation is top notch: digipak CD with thick booklet.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 6/10