What (?!!), a band that still uses Satanist signs, a cover with a horned and masked monster raising an axe, and track-titles like “Born in Blasphemy”, “Beyond the Bridge of Death” and “In Black Years of Pain” – is this a cult re-issues of some obscure 80’s-band? Hell no (!!!), this is made in 2006!

Berlin-based Fatal Embrace was founded in 1993, broke up in ’95, re-emerged with new members in ’97, and since then the traditional 5 man line-up hasn’t seemed to have changed.

According to their info sheet, they’re a very active live band, playing shows and festivals around Europe with more or less famous bands like Attacker, Sodom, Holy Moses and Fleshless, “gaining themselves a name as one of the heaviest and most brutal metal acts on this planet”... hmmm, maybe so.

The “inspiration” is unmistakably from 80’s (early) thrash- and death metal bands like Slayer (mostly like on Show No Mercy), Dark Angel, Kreator and Venom, topped off with a cover of Death-song “Evil Dead”. Most of the material on this album sounds like something I’ve heard before, but it’s so long ago since I’ve heard it, that I don’t quite remember who did it originally. Something that sound very familiar (and not that old) is the intro on “Damned will be the Name”, that seems pinched more or less directly from Slayer (South of Heaven), and so it continues.

Even the sound is like an 80’s record, but being produced by Harris Johns, maybe that’s on purpose… I just think one should use the technical gear available to make the best possible sound, and I don’t think they did here.

Together with all the before mentioned, a lot of roaring and screaming and lines like “Play heavy metal – dark pounding steel” as the chorus of the title-track, finally nails it down for me: a complete 80’s rip-off!

If you got stuck musically somewhere in the mid-80’s, and didn’t quite finish the early thrash-days, wants a quick trip back in time, or you want an easy sum-up of what went on musically in the harder genre in those days, this is a buy for you – If I get an urge to listen to stuff that old, I’d rather listen to the originals.