Lich King-Born of the bomb

2012

I remember first hearing these guys a few years ago and I could recognize the potential, but definitely hoped they would tighten up plus some better production values wouldn't hurt. They were genuine in their love of old school thrash, but they were often sloppy around the edges and didn't always seem 100% sure of their musical direction on certain songs. Fast forward a few years and Lich King have improved a little with each album and they definitely showed some drastic improvement on 2010's "World gone dead" which heard them settling in and being more comfortable with just being a retro-thrash band. Now we are up to this year's "Born of the bomb" and again I think we get less goofiness and more thrash. They still mix some humor in with the lyrics and that's fine because that will always be part of their personality. Let's look at some of the songs here. "All hail" is the opening introduction that eventually on to "We came to conquer" which a heavy does of solid old school thrash with a touch of crossover tied in. Nothing fancy but a tight mostly straight ahead track. "In the end devastation" launches out with a heavy, mid tempo pace that follows a rather controlled path before speeding up and really letting go. The build-up on this one had my attention all the way so nicely played. "Combat Mosh" is simplistic and just when I thought the lyrics were going to make me cringe so much I'd have to to fast forward it they got it together and pulled it out. "Wage slave" rips straight ahead with various riffs cutting underneath that really had some depth. The music on the other tracks certainly isn't lacking, but this was one of my favorites because they pushed to add something extra to it. "Axe cop" is another basic track that just pulled me in very quickly. Honestly the only track on the album I wasn't fond of was the detour of "Fan massacre" which is sort of a DRI/MOD crossover type track only it's far too one dimensional and even as a joke song it falls flat. The rest of the album is probably one of the stronger retro-thrash albums I have heard so far this year. Lich King have come a long ways in a few years. They are very capable of constructing some blasting thrash and they are even starting to put more of their own brand on the music as well. A fine effort with very good results.