This new year of our Lord sounds promising as 2023 was for some Metal subgenres. Last year was great for Power Metal, a Metal subgenre I wrote bazillion times it was worn out and predictable though I loved it from the bottom of my black heart. We’re starting this year with Scarlet Anger and their 3rd full-length named “Martyr,” an album with lots, lots of surprises. I know it’s the end of january and I’m saying the year is beginning. The reason is that this is the first release of the year properly saying. The others were from 2023.
Well, “Martyr” is an album of the other Metal subgenre I always say it’s predictable and worn-out, but I still love it from the bottom of my black heart: Thrash Metal. I know, I know, there is a NWOTM (New Wave of Thrash Metal, if memory serves me right) baking out there and I did get some really great samples of it. However, some things have to be given time to flourish, I mean, for us to be sure this is really a thing going on. Now I know it is. Scarlet Anger did their best here to show Thrash Metal isn’t outdated and it’s pretty much alive and well. “Martyr” is a darn good album that sounds fresh. But the burning question is what makes the album so special?
Well, to tell you the strictly truth Scarlet Anger used a trick the other bands did. They mixed the good old Thrash Metal riffs with other Extreme Metal features. That only, and I repeat, that only makes the album sounds so fresh. But it’s not only. The band added some more pepper to their baking and the cooking got so delicious. There are more melody combined with more aggression. Some tracks as “Behind the Mask” have a sonancy pretty near Melodic Death Metal with the well-known Thrash Metal downpicking. While mixing their art with other extreme Metal features, album opener “The Destroyer” is a pure 1980’s Thrash Metal bash with today’s clean production which allows everything to be perfectly heard. Its mood is fantastic as well as its riffings and twin guitars. I don’t like the term but here it sounds perfect as “The Destroyer” is a reinterpretation of our good old Thrash Metal. The twin guitars here are killers. The speed the band aplies to the song is amazing. Following track “No Time“ follows the same formula, but vocals that are harsher pretty near Death Metal. Here is where the band starts to combine their old art with a new one. But the crème de la créme, as usual, is album tittle track “Martyr” where the combination gets alive with the addition of NWOBHM guitars plus the aggression of Melodic Death Metal. The mood here is simply fantastic. It’s amazing how it goes speeding up and cooling down in a beat of a heart. No doubt the best track of the album. An album to praise. And to listen very, but very loud.
2024 sounds promising. It sure does. It gets even better with a release like this.
Scarlet Anger “Martyr” was released on January 20th.
Track Listing:
Watch official video here:
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