Atrocity-Okkult

Napalm Records
2013

I had meant to review Atrocity's latest album weeks ago, but a nasty 2 1/2 weeks long middle ear infection ruined that. At the time I wasn't too keen on album eight (I'm not counting the various comp. albums or weird cover albums) and, even know with all this time having passed, I'm still not completely sold on "Okkult". For the record this is supposed to be the start of a trilogy. Or something like that. The promo is rather crazy/mixed-up. Either way, for those that don't know, Atrocity is a heavy metal band from Ludwigsburg, Germany that was formed in 1985. Throughout their career they have jumped around genre wise from death metal to folk metal and, yes it's odd, even gothic/industrial type metal. More then anything this album is thrash oriented with lead vocalist Alexander Krull sounding as harsh as always. Meanwhile the rest of the band,Sander van der Meer (guitar), Thorsten Bauer (guitar/bass) and Joris Nijenhuis (drums), all gel together rather well and everyone sounds like they're playing "all in" as it were. It's all very effective and technically sound enough so why does it leave me feeling blah then? Even this second time through, with weeks in-between listening to "Okkult", leaves me shrugging my shoulders and saying "Eh". I will be honest about this new album as always though. It does seems that I'm in the minority with my review as friends and colleges have offered praise for Atrocity's new disc. I wish I shared their enthusiasm, but "Okkult", which is at least a return to playing real metal for this German band, leaves me wanting something, anything I guess, more. If your a fan it's probably best then that you take this one for a spin yourself to see how it feels.