The Scourger
Blind Date With Violence
7.6
Imagine how cool it would be if a Scandinavian band played some fast and thrashy metal with a small dose of melody, and then put some harsh male vocals over the top. Awesome. Well, Helsinki’s The Scourger does just that. In reality, they have entered a crowded market of melodic death/thrash dominated by their Swedish neighbors. Luckily, The Scourger have the chops to remain competitive in a deep playing field.
Blind Date with Violence comes packaged with a guitar-heavy production. The axes come through loud, with accentuation on the mids and highs, same with the drums. Jari’s vocals are right upfront, bringing a sinister snarl with distinctive pronunciations. Especially in the vocals, but also some of the riffing, I hear strong similarities to Poland’s Sceptic, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Jani and Timo anchor the band with adequate dual guitar interplay, always keeping a quick pace with standard At the Gates-inspired riffage.
The album opens up in grand fashion with “Decline of Conformity/Grading: Deranged”. A plodding intro leads into a song with a Slayer-esque main riff set, and short shred solo that sounds out of the library of King and Hanneman. Of course, the overall sound is a lot more Swedish melodic death than old-time US speed/thrash. “Maximum Intensity” gives off a Lamb of God vibe, particularly the newer LOG sound – smart, short, and thrashy guitaring. Textbook solos are found on songs like “Chapter Thirteen” and “Enslaved to Faith”. However, there is a minor trend towards redundancy. After awhile, some of the songs can run together, which is what happens when you have nine tracks of fast melodic death/thrash with a vocalist who uses very little range or variation on this release.
For a debut full-length album, The Scourger have done a fine job, releasing a strong and energetic album of familiar melodic death/thrash. Their sound is thoroughly modern, while some of their more obvious influences may be older. Blind Date with Violence would best fit into a record collection alongside similarly loud bands like The Duskfall.
