Scarefield – A Quiet Country Review

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Thrash Metal with a new approach. That’s what myd ear child of the night will find here with Scarefield and their debut album “A Quiet Country,” a horror-infused piece with blendings of Speed Metal.

At first, the album doesn’t sound so standard Thrash Metal as it would be expected by its cover, but a mix of 1980’s and 1990’s influences – some of them so unexpected as the Funk O’ Metal of “Spectre” and its cadenced and groovy guitars as Faith No More used to do back then. It’s this blend that makes the album fresh and, somewhat, unexpected. Maybe “Spectre” won’t sound so fresh today, but it displays the band’s will to vary. Following track “Child of the Corn” has an initial pop grip which fades away when the killing starts. It’s one of tracks of the album that sounds pretty dissimilar. In fact, other tracks have this pop grip on vocals. In “God of Terror,” for instance, vocals have the same grip even though the song beats faster and harder. The pop grip is given by the modern Metal vocals drive which is ferociously constrasted with the strong and melodic guitars using some different drills. This infusion of pop features in the songs is another thing that makes Scarefield’s sound so distinctive. By the way, the guitars are a highlight of the album with their unusual and out of the box solutions. Of course, they are sometimes exactly what the fan expects them to do, but that’s the charm of “A Quiet Country,” an abum to surprise and, at the same time, an album to feel comfortable. Even the ballad “Dream” has a different way mixing some melodic guitars with dissimilar chords and arrangements. There is some Testament feeling in the song which gets even more clear with the unsual cadence by the fifth minute.

“A Quiet Country” is an abum to surprise and, at the same time, an album to feel comfortable because besides the horror-infused pieces – maybe inspired by Stephen King as many other bands in the 1980s – Scarefield mixed some Testament influence with other ones totally out of the box. That makes the album something fresh to listen. It was such a delight.

Scarefield “A Quiet Country” was independently released on February 09th.

Track Listing:

  1. Ancient Evil
  2. Dead Center
  3. Altar of Fear
  4. Spectre
  5. Child of the Corn
  6. God of Terror
  7. Primitive Shadows
  8. Dream
  9. Shiver
  10. Always
  11. Goodbye

Watch “Child of the Corn” official music video here:

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