Guillotine-Blood Money

Pulverized
2008

Guillotine were originally formed back in the mid-1990’s by Nocturnal Rites members Fredrik Mannberg and Nils Eriksson who wanted an outlet to play material that reminded them of the thrash that they grew up with. The project originally began as a two piece going by the moniker of Holocaust. However the band soon became Guillotine, a demo was recorded and eventually the full length “Under the Guillotine” was released in 1997. However Mannberg and Eriksson soon went back to their main band and Guillotine were put on the back burner. A decade later the band was revived and guitarist Daniel Sundborn and drummer Efraim Juntunen were recruited to round out the line-up. So that brings up the present and the band’s second release “Blood Money”. This release comes during a time when the thrash revival is and has been in full swing for some time. Guillotine are beyond most the up and coming bands attempting their hand at old style thrash. The reason is that this band is not trying to re-create the past, but instead they take the style and build it into a huge wall and then just go thundering ahead. The result is a very intense pounding assault on your senses as they churn out incredibly thick layered riffs with a battering ram like rhythm section behind them. There are easily traces of Slayer as well as a definite early 1990's Florida death metal sound as well. The key is that they build on their influences as they add and create an even heavier sound that rarely lets up. The vocals are strong and lean more towards a late 80's thrash sound rather than a death metal growl. Now admittedly it took Guillotine a few songs to get really warmed up on this disc. For a few songs they wander through an aggressive, but relatively simple style before really coming into their own. Then they settled in, began to manipulate and change up the pace and that is when they started to come into their own. This year has already seen more than it's share of old style thrash releases from bands all over the globe. Several plays of this disc had me convinced that Guillotine's Blood Money is one of the more impressive thrash releases of 2008.

http://www.myspace.com/guillotine2007