2016
Teutonic thrash metal. Those are three words that I will never get tired of hearing. As a teenager I fell head over heels in love with German thrash and ever since that first fateful encounter* I just cannot get enough of the stuff! Like many others before me it was the Big Three that first turned me on to the glorious insanity that was and still is the German thrash metal scene and now I cannot even begin to imagine my life without that trio. It should go without saying, but just in case it isn't obvious then I am talking about the gods themselves: Kreator, Destruction, and of course Sodom! Those three groups helped get me through the living hell that was high school and I cannot even begin to tell you how many copies of "Extreme Aggression", "Release From Agony", and "Agent Orange" I wore out along the way! To me these three F**king Awesome bands will always be the absolute best that Germany has to offer the thrash metal scene and I simply cannot see that ever changing. So, what exactly does that have to do with Mortal Peril you might be asking? Well, a lot actually. First off all Mortal Peril channels the spirits of all three of those veteran bands. Yes, Mortal Peril is also influenced by the eighties thrash scene in general (Slayer, Exodus, Overkill, and Metallica) and there are flashes of speed metal, HEAVY traditional metal, melodic thrash and even doom to be spotted along the way. So technically it's not 100% Teutonic thrash metal we're talking about with "The Legacy Of War". Still, in all the best ways humanly possible, Mortal Peril reminds me of the greats. On "The Legacy Of War" I get the same kind of wonderful sensation I got from some of Sodom's more technical albums. From the songwriting to the performances I can feel the bands Kreator and Destruction. Somehow this six year old band has managed to put together an album that has all the vintage charm of those three bands while still packing enough of a modern day edge to make it relevant. It's all there and more and it is wicked! But, here's the kicker. Despite the involvement of these influential spirits the band Mortal Peril still has their own thing going on and man oh man is it ever energetic! You're going to want to be careful where you are when you first play this disc as this is pedal to the metal thrash we are talking about! I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school yesterday when I first put in this CD and the let me just tell you the opening number, "Generation Hate", had me FLYING down the back-roads! More than once I had to dial it back some because this CD is SICK! With their second full-length album since first forming back in 2010 the four members of Mortal Peril push everything to the absolute limit. For band mates Jan Radermacher (vox/bass), Pete Rode (lead guitar), Mr. Greene (rhythm guitar), and drummer Jonas Linnartz this is as good as it gets. Frankly-speaking this the kind of album that many bands dream about but are never able to achieve. My friends this is the complete package and to get back to our earlier conversation I can't help but imagine a new generation of kids using this album as an outlet in much the same way that I used tapes by Kreator, Sodom, and Destruction! How is this all possible? How can one band that many have never heard of do so much on their sophomore release? Honestly I don't have an answer for that particular question, but if you want to try to answer it for yourself then it is all packed neatly inside this CD. Needless to say, "The Legacy Of War" is A+ release and it comes HIGHLY recommend!
*My very first taste of German thrash came from Kreator's "Extreme Aggression". I found the tape one day while visiting a music store in Chapel Hill Mall in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. To this day I absolutely LOVE that album and while Mortal Peril's new disc might actually lean closer to classic Destruction at times I can still feel the spirit of Kreator creeping about in the background! What I dig about this band and this CD is how they take classic thrash and give it a modern feel. Well, there's that and then how damn catchy this stuff all is!
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