Carrying on thrash reviews I present you Amken’s Theater Of The Absurd. As a person that has been young for a longer time, I saw thrash being born. My first references of thrash were Metallica, Exciter, Megadeth, and Nuclear Assault. A bit later I met Overkill and Slayer. As you can see each band with very different styles. My critique of today’s thrash scene is that bands are very close to each other. I mean, they follow the same musical formula sounding very alike. For my luck, Amken don’t follow that formula. Theater Of The Absurd combines many sound references and the outcome is a varied album. Amken got it all right. Theater Of The Absurd is a breathtaking piece of metal. Strong as all thrash piece have to be. Thrashy the way it has to. The tittle track, “Theater Of The Absurd”, has something I like a lot that is that thrashy atmosphere. I mean, “Theater Of The Absurd” isn’t fast, but cadenced and the guitar gives a lot of sound contrast. Sometimes aggressive, sometimes soft and nice. The pace goes from the speed of light to something slower, but heavy and powerful. The opening track, “Shattered Sanity”, has also called my attention. It’s a blast! A great greeting card.
Listen to “Obedient Dogs” and pay attention to how they develop their musical ideas and work with contrasts. Thrash is not only speed. You sure need some, but not all the time. Sometimes you have to break it. The slow pace something sounded martial, and that’s very nice to me. That’s really what I liked about Amken. And again, Amken is a band that respect their bassist. You can actually hear its metalic sounds and how it fills up the songs. “Wired” goes the same way with a good initial guitar riff.
Amken’s Theater Of The Absurd is another good work from the producer David Prudent. A big hail to them all!
