Kev Rowland
This is the debut album from Apocalypse Warhead, another Finnish technical Death Metal band. What is impressive with this is that it is the work of just one man, Tuukka Laitinen. Tuukka has been around the scene for a while, recording with Rytmihäiriö some twenty years ago, but this album shows him branching out on his own. Now, I am a hater of programmed drums, but I can ensure you that unless you read it you will never know that there isn’t an octopus behind the drumkit as Tuukka must have spent countless hours working on those tracks as the fills and power don’t sound as if it came from a computer.
The label says that the music is a carefully balanced blend of high quality riffs, speed, brutality, aggression, atmosphere and technicality, and once they have it right. Tuukka is obviously highly influenced by Slayer (and the album itself is dedicated to Jeff Hanneman), but there are also elements of Death and the production by Sami Raatikainen (Necrophagist/Radiance/Codeon) is spot on, giving the album the brutality it needs. If there was one fault that would be in the guitar solos which don’t quite match up to the brutal riffage that goes on around it but that has been identified by Tuukka who will be binging in guest guitarists as he moves forward.
This was originally self-released so all power to the guy for pursuing this with such vigour, and now that it has been made available by Inverse let’s hope that it gets the recognition it so richly deserves. www.inverse.fi