UMUR
"Unmitigated Disaster" is the debut full-length studio album by Canadian thrash metal act Alphakill. The album was independently released in June 2012. Alphakill were formed in 2010 and are on this release a four-piece consisting of Jesse Skoleski (Bass, Backing Vocals), Derrick Kroll (Drums, Vocals), Jon Warren (Guitars, Backing Vocals), and Justin Stear (Vocals, Guitars).
Right off the bat the music style is established by the opening track "Thrash Eternal". Powerful riff heavy thrash metal, with a raw singing vocalist in front. Justin Stear is not just a raw shouting thrash metal vocalist though, as he can actually sing too (and the riot gang backing vocals are also quite charming). Not that Alphakill ever fall into the power ballad trap, or try to incorporate clean singing in an attempt to reach a mainstream audience, but there is a melodic sensibility to his singing, which makes his vocal performance a bit more varied than your average raw sounding thrash metal singer.
The band are well playing and perform their parts with great skill and conviction. The material on the 9 track, 51:03 minutes long album are well written, catchy, and powerful, and while most tracks are relatively formulaic vers/chorus structured (and also lyrically without surprises), Alphakill understand the importance of writing a memorable bridge, play shredding solos (and there´s even the rare nod towards neo-classical shredding), deliver guitar harmonies, and incorporate a tempo change, when that is called for. So there is a good compositional balance and variation throughout the album.
"Unmitigated Disaster" also features a raw and powerful sounding production, which suits the material well, so all in all it´s a good quality thrash metal album. But when all the positives are mentioned I do have to say that Alphakill aren´t the most original sounding thrash metal band out there. It´s not that they sound like any other particular act, but they don´t really play anything you haven´t heard before either. Fortunately what they deliver, are delivered with such great passion and skill, that the lack of an original sound becomes a minor issue, and fans of the genre shouldn´t ignore the album because of that. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.