Blind Illusion – Wrath Of The Gods
Blind Illusion – Wrath Of The Gods
Hammerheart Records
Release Date: 07/10/2022
Running Time:
Review by Richard Oliver
6/10
Blind Illusion are a band revered in old school Thrash circles and known for their technical Thrash debut album “The Sane Asylum” in 1988 and also known for who played in the band on said album – namely Les Claypool and Larry Lalonde of Primus. Apart from that cult debut album, Blind Illusion have mainly been inactive, splitting up in 1992 and then reforming in 2009 with only vocalist and guitarist Marc Biedermann remaining from the early days. A second album “Demon Master” was released and universally panned, but now Blind Illusion are going for third time lucky with album number three “Wrath Of The Gods”.
Much like previous album “Demon Master”, Marc Biedermann is the only remaining original member of the band on “Wrath Of The Gods”, but he is joined by Tom Gears on bass and also some old school Thrash royalty in the form of Doug Piercy (ex-Heathen) on guitars and Andy Galeon (ex-Death Angel) on drums. After the misfire of “Demon Master”, what we get on “Wrath Of The Gods” is very much an old school Thrash Metal vibe. This is far more straightforward then the technical and Progressive Thrash of “The Sane Asylum” and has a lot of Classic Rock and Metal leanings as well as that classic Thrash sound. Album opener ‘Straight As The Crowbar Flies’ is a great solid Thrash song, as is ‘Slow Death’, whilst ‘Spaced’ is more of a groovy Heavy Metal tune. There are odd noodlings of technicality such as in ‘Protomolecule’ and ‘Lucifer’s Awakening’, but on the whole this is quite a straightforward album. Seven songs make up the main album but the CD edition has two bonus songs ‘Amazing Maniacal Monolith’ which is a another more straightforward Metal song but with an interesting Bluesy mid-section and ‘No Rest ‘til Budapest’ which has a Classic Rock sound to it.
“Wrath Of The Gods” has good and bad things about it. The thrasher moments are the strongest whilst some of the Classic Metal and Rock influenced songs sound very generic. In fact, the main criticism that can be levelled at “Wrath Of The Gods” is that it is just a very run of the mill sounding album. It is a massive step up from “Demon Master”, but it is a rather forgettable album on the whole. If you are looking for a very meat and potatoes thrashy heavy metal album then this will do the job but if you want something with more substance to it then you will probably find this album underwhelming.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Straight as the Crowbar Flies
02. Slow Death
03. Protomolecule
04. Spaced
05. Wrath of the Gods
06. Behemoth
07. Lucifer’s Awakening
08. Amazing Maniacal Monolith (CD Bonus Track)
09. No Rest ‘til Budapest (CD Bonus Track)
LINE-UP:
Marc Biedermann (Vocals, Guitars)
Tom Gears (Bass)
Doug Piercy (Guitars)
Andy Galeon (Drums)
LINKS:
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