Entrench - Violent Procreation

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It’s a known fact that each year we still will be left with enough albums from the previous year to drool over and enjoy. Here too, we still continue to listen to those albums released in 2014. But boy, I didn’t expect such a beast of an album to be listening to on a New Year’s Eve to do my next review. So to get business started, introducing Swedish Thrash maniacs ENTRENCH with their 2nd full length album "Violent Procreation". How this wasn’t mentioned in any of the end-of-the-year lists is beyond my understanding, but this album is something.

The album goes on full throttle right from the first song “One with Agony". The riffs are more reminiscent of the Speed Metal bands and faster than the ones by the usual Thrash bands. The vocals by Fredrik Pellbrink, who also deals with the guitars here, are of screaming nature and in your face growling vocals, just like the rest of the music. The bass and the drums are found to follow the guitars more often than not. But it’s Fredrik’s guitar work that is undoubtedly the highlight of this record. With each song, my respect to his guitar work only increases. Take for instance “Adjust to Summit” where he shifts from mid tempo to high tempo from time to time and shows the plethora of technical riffs usually heard only in an old school Death Metal record, or even “Devoid of Life” where he brings in thick Death Metal style riffage adding a new dimension to the album. The drums are fast paced and easily could fit in any Death Metal album. The music as a whole has shades of Death, Black Metal, and Crossover Thrash and as mentioned earlier is much faster than the typical Thrash Metal record. Just when you thought it’s a unidirectional album, “Chemical Holocaust/The Mental Wasteland” throws in an atmospheric outro, sadly not all that impressive. “The Process of Annihilation” brings in headbangable riffs, a sound that is reminiscent of ARTILLERY. The rest of the album goes along the same lines, blasting ear piercing Black Thrash.

This is a great album, as the band takes Thrash Metal to a whole different style not often dared by many bands. "Violent Procreation" has Teutonic Thrash influence written all over it. It’s a little sad to read that the drummer Victor Holmström passed away few weeks after recording this album. While the lyrics deal with Death, Life, War, Depression; the production is polished and gives the raw music an interesting dimension. All said and done, blindly pick this album if there’s a Thrasher in you.