Insiders are familiar with the grooving thrash metal by Belgian band Channel Zero.
After 4 albums they quit in 1997, but due to a group of facebook friends, the
call for a reunion show got bigger and bigger. In 2009 the band would play a one
and only reunion show in Brussel, in front of 12.000 fans. The overwhelming
interest in the band made them decide to go on and in 2011 a new album was
even released.
Now their 6th album is ready for release and fans will be pleased by it I think.
In the middle of the recording their drummer Phil Baheux (only 45 years old)
passed away and the recordings were obviously postponed. After several months
they found Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour) to help them out with the the drumming. The
music on the album is rather variable. There are heavy angry thrash songs where
Franky de Smet - Van Damme uses his aggressive singing style, but also
more melodic rocks/metal songs with clean singing.
The first song starts heavy with a groove and is immediately one of the best in
my opinion. The refrain is very melodic and Franky shows that he is a good
vocalist indeed. After that comes "Electronic Cocaine", a typical groovy song
again with clean vocals. "Burn the Nation" is a thrash song reminding of old
Metallica. The groove track "Digital Warfare" continues the heavy path on the
album, again a song with a nice riff. "Ego" is a more slower and less
heavy experimental track and together with "Brother Keepers" the strangest
part of the album. In between these songs, the heavy title track "Kill All
Kings" takes all your energy with all its anger and aggression. In
"Duisternis" (which means darkness), a mix of Flemish, Walloon and English
lyrics are sung and the music reminds me of Slayer a lot. The last track is a
very emotional track in which you can hear the grief over the loss of Phil.
Final conclusion is that the new album has everything you'd
expect from Channel Zero, (groovy) thrash, melodic pieces, variety and this all
in well written
songs.
