Malevolence Records – 2012 European Tour Sampler (2012)

In an action packed sampler, today we have Malevolence Records “2012 European Tour Sampler” featuring 4 different bands and two tracks each, a new one and an older one. With a nice spread of different musical genres (Thrash Metal and Melodic Death/Black Metal) this release is quite entertaining and shows promises for the upcoming releases of bands like KAOS and Septic Christ.

Tracks one and five belong the American Thrash Metal act KAOS. Their brand of high-octane Thrash Metal was greatly received with their last release titled “Pits of Existence” from which “Let God Sort Them Out” comes from. The new track “Infernal Bleeding” continues where the band left off and delivers super guitar work and excellent drumming. The vocals are pretty standards and aggressive enough to keep fans of ‘more brutal’ genres interested. This track has a nice melodic edge to it and we can only hope their upcoming release “Validated in Blood” is as good as this song.

Absentia from Spain provides us with songs two and six. We have earlier this year reviewed their latest release “Our Bleeding Sun” and this is where their first track comes from. With their perfect blend of Melodic Death/Black Metal, this band’s music is top notch. The track we haven’t heard from their “Heaven Still Burns” release from 2009 shows how the band’s sound has greatly matured since then, but makes up for a very engaging Melodic piece that has an old-school vibe. 

Pummeling through two excellent Thrash Metal tracks, Septic Christ delivers some of the best songs in this sample with “Yearning for Salvation” and “Wake Up”. This Germany Thrash has a very well-defined 80’s bay area sound as their riffing and song structures clearly show. The catchiness of “Yearning for Salvation” is very effective and made us write down the band’s name to look for their upcoming album in the future. “Wake Up” delivers a more straight-forward approach with high similarities to bands like Kreator and Death Angel, but with a little bit less punch than their first song.

The last two tracks belong to T.C.F, a band from the Netherlands that plays a hybrid of Thrash Metal with some Hardcore elements. Their two tracks are the shortest ones of this release and quite frankly not to our full liking. “An Eye For an Eye” has that punk-ish edge that some people might enjoy, but for us is just not engaging enough. The even shorter “Core 88” has more meat on the guitar work, and sounds bit more like old-school Thrash metal, making it out of their two songs our ‘favorite’ one.

As this sampler indicates, the band’s playing at Metal Over Oostrozebeke festival on July 7th, 2012 will provide a great show due to their musical abilities. This sampler also gives you a nice insight into 4 bands that are making some nice music and should be heard. If you are a fan of Thrash Metal, this release should be of your interest since more than half of the tracks are pretty good for this genre standards.

Release: April 10th, 2012

Country: Netherlands, USA, Spain and Germany