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In 2007 I bought the first Lazarus record 'The Onslaught'. It was a self release and I was very impressed by it, just look at the review I made for this site in December 2007. It took a while before they got picked up by the mighty Metal Blade, which re-released the record, but Lazarus had to add A.D. to their name. Probably because there was already another band with the same name. 'Black Rivers Flow' is so to say their first real Metal Blade release. Of course I was very curious about the result. Can Lazarus A.D. even top their first release? I am not yet sure of it. It must be like with your first real girlfriend, the next ones always has to compete with the first and with the first you had experiences that get normal with the second, third etc. etc. After a good debut, you want more and even better, but the real surprise has already gone. The music on their debut was comparable with Metallica, Exodus, Testament, Slayer and even Pantera. For the bigger part that is the same on this second one, but they changed too. Every now and then we hear some clean singing parts like in the song "Black Rivers Flow" and they turned a bit more modern sounding too. The vocals are a mix of aggressive thrash vocals, screaming and clean ones. They are divided between Jeff Paulick (bass) and Dan Gapen (guitars). This brings in variety, but also makes the album a tad less heavy than their first. The songs are very groovy and the old-school guitar solo’s come and goes. More than once on this album I have to think of the band Machine Head, there are more parts in their music that can be compared with them. Just take a listen to "Through Your Eyes" and you will know what I mean. When listening to that song, also pay attention to the beautiful guitar solo! Lazarus A.D. can be proud with their second release, they have built on the high standard of the first and they even developed their style a bit more. I have to give them credit for that and this is a band that will stay at the top of the nowadays thrash scene. Perhaps it did not turn me upside down that much this time, but it is at least the same quality as their debut! Job well-done! | ||||||||||||||||||
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