Battlecross
Pursuit of Honor
Rating
Style: Thrash Metal
Release date: 1 August, 2011
Playing time: 36:17
 

You can't judge a book only by its cover; the same can be said about this CD. A cliché name, cliché artwork and...... cliché music? No, not this time. This band from Detroit combines several styles; thrash traditional metal, death metal and black metal. You can compare them a little bit with the style 3 Inches of Blood used to play on their first albums.

Interesting is the combination of harsh aggressive vocals and death metal grunting. Another positive point is that the band plays very very tight, fast and raw. Thrash music with melody and groove as we know it from Exodus and Testament with death-metal vocals and melodic guitar leads, embedded in a dark atmosphere. Fans of Trivium's first record will like this too I think. I don't know how the band manages it, but they have found a perfect combination of some metal styles without becoming cliché or boring. The songs are all nice and well written, have for the bigger part a high tempo and the perfect groove.

It isn't easy to be original and you don't have to be, just use the best parts from several styles and melt it together. Battlecross found the way to do it and made one of the better albums I've listened to lately.

Congratulations! Mission accomplished!


Tracklist

01. Pursuit of Honor
02. Push Pull Destroy
03. Kaleb
04. Deception
05. Man of Stone
06.
Breaking You
07.
Rupture
08. Leech
09. Better off Dead
10. Misery
11. Forshadowing

Label: Metal Blade Records
Distribution: Target (Denmark)
Reviewed by: Reinier de Vries
Date: 25 July, 2011
Website: www.myspace.com/battlecross