Vindicator - Sleeping With Evil

Vindicator

Sleeping With Evil

by Michael "MettleAngel" Francisco at 27 February 2014, 2:24 PM

I never quite did understand the big fuss over VINDICATOR. Now signed to Stormspell, South Amherst Ohio, USA. thrash and destroy legends seem ready to make their violent mark in the night. I really appreciated the songs on the “Outbreak Of Metal Vol.1” compilation which I bought at a RAVAGE show. This introduced me to the band and their critiqued history. Their promising covers of INDESTROY and ANTI-NOWHERE LEAGUE resonated with me. I then sought out “There Will Be Blood” which was damn good too. I did not care for the production on “The Antique Witcheries”, even though everyone was raving mad about it. Slaney Records sent me a promo for “United We Fall”, and I found that to hold some level of merit. This is when the Stown brothers welcomed James J. LaRue (ex-WHITE WIZZARD) who had just left HOLY GRAIL, and current SHOK PARIS bassist Ed Stephens.

So until the next full-length we have this (EP) with new material, a demo, and a live track. The opener - “Sleeping With Evil” carries the fatal infection of a failed relationship; something with which the band is all too familiar, personified by some succulent busty, wicked bitch. Chasing the forced hedonistic appeal of violent restitution, “Hockey Stick Vengeance” punishes you, as you become ensnared in its warlike gears of hate, and your blood begins to flow on the ice, as if trapped beneath the guillotine, in hoarfrost. The cleverly titled “New Clear Assault: End Of An Error”, harps back to the second searing cut off “There Will Be Blood”. It reaches critical mass, but seems a tad out of order in its attempt to pay homage to NUCLEAR ASSAULT as well as the arsenal of MEGADETH – a band they love to dog, when they rattle their heads and get under your skin. “Destruction Of Justice” has that nationwide ruination malevolent creation. “Rampage” maintains damage control, and allows the boys to represent that thrashing is their business and selling a piece of it is good.

So far, so good, so what is my take? All in all this is just more inveterate antique trickery, borrowing too much from the Masters, so hail to the thieves for honoring the past, but never quite living up to it. Even after all the years of pain and suffering, united by hatred and a cryptic staunch determination, they fail to strike me as anything more than a hollowed out sounding bell's knell, on the eve of destruction.