1. Architects Of The Apocalypse

2. Burden Of Past

3. Eve Of Destruction

4. The Last Dance

5. Embrace The Depression

6. Beyond A Subconscious World

7. Portal Of Haunting Dreams

8. Sweet Suicide Solution

9. Twinkling Red Tears

10. Chain Of Command

11. Troops Of Doom

Frank Urschler - vocals ,  guitar

Alex Hinterberger  - guitar

Sebastian Jehle - bass

Andreas Kiechle- drums

Tonstudio - Christoph Brandes - March/Hugstetten _ Germany.  iguana-studios

our live reports:  Tankard + Bitterness in Luzern - Metal Forces V - The Reaper comes to your Home 

review  by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo____   

A very mighty and varied Melodic Death -Thrash from Germany, full of heaviness ,  guitar melodies and with a touch of Doom and Black. Brilliant bass sound, excellent drums and "evil" biting  vocals, for a band who is more and more dark oriented and  in a  phase of evolution.

Bitterness is a German band that is now well known in the German -Swiss scene, and is a very engaged one: a band that really believes in Metal , unmistakable mark of the best underground acts whose passion and flame for music is still genuine and without compromises. In only 3 years they have delivered 3 full length demo-CD's, played many significative concerts with Names like Harmony Dies (see Metal Forces V), Belphegor, Tankard, Necronomicon and Adorned Brood, and taken part in many compilations like Legacy sampler August 2000 - The Reaper Comes I and  II . The Reaper Comes has lead them in tour among  Switzerland ,  Germany and Belgium and finally, if you consider the next dates you will find that soon they will play with Purgatory. All this what does it mean? It means that they are very appreciated by the German metalheads that in puncto Death and Thrash and, in general, extreme Metal , dom't admit mediocrity.  Bitterness are a mighty band reecently  made stronger  by the addition of the new guitarist Alex Hinterberger.  Started as Bitterness on the ashes of the previous  Thrash combo Steel tormentor, drummer Andreas Kiechle and mastermind, vocalist and guitarist Frank Urschler ,found  in  Sebastian Jehle their ideal bass player. They have recorded demo and played live as a very energetic and massive trio. And now that have a guitarist more, they are literally thundering with their usual great cohesion . Through  the album Sweet Suicide Solution , released this year, they show an amazing evolution also in the strictly specific musical field. 

Already the previous CD Dawn of Golden Blood   (year 2002 - Gate of Dimensions- Sentenced to live - Escalation of Emotions - Intermezzo - Hate - THRASH - Dawn of golden Blood) was a valuable work , in full Thrash-Death style with songs that will always remain  a  coat of arms for the band, i mean for example T.H.R.A.S.H., Sentenced to live and Hate; Already mighty but raw and very direct, this CD rocked much with some groovy tones already present at the time (Escalation of Emotions). Sentenced to live was even particularly catchy with an uptempo rocking scheme which faded into thrashy ace riffings with a tremolo technique. With the wonderful  Melodic Death song  Dawn of golden Blood (imo a masterpiece)- where melodious guitars  began to shine-  a gate was opened on a dark sometimes even  Doom Black-ish turning point, announcing the new characteristics, while the energetic and pushing T.H.R.A.S.H. soon became the symbol of the band, being (fortunately) not immune from groovy elements though the feelings towards the 80's was  very strong (some passages and vocal techniques reminded me of Metal Thrashing Mad   from the glorious Fistful of Metal by Anthrax) 

 So this new  Sweet Suicide Solution is deeper as far as it concerns sound , less raw but still  extremely heavy, clearly dark oriented. Their  determination is more complete, more varied , with a more refined technique in playing . Their Thrash is  united and mixed with Melodic Death, and so much that the classical old -school   elements from the 80's flow towards a more modern and varied vision of Death: result is that they present songs which appear  modern and highly enjoyable.  In this album  we can find furious riffings and  hammering attacks, but also guitar melodic arpeggios, relentless rhythms alternated with dark groovy slower passages:  indeed there is  much darkness, like also the elegant  booklet in black and white with obscure themes makes us understand. The points of  strength of this band are a powerful and elastic drumming ,   a mighty bass sound, just consider that Sebastian Jehle masters a 6-string- bass, and a still merciless attitude . The charismatic Frank Urschler (looking a bit like Jesus Christ if i may say) delivers improved vocals with can be very flexible, and always agreeable but above all evil and biting ! Like mentioned before drums are a weapon of this act: they are indeed dynamic,  flexible, relentless like a Thrash Death band must have, but they are not square and rough, they are  more Black -shaped: pulsing and pushing and crashing in the Black direction, in particular  the double bass attacks are pushing and fast but with a soft crepitant  touch.

Track number 3 Eve of Destruction .is one of my fav songs cause the various extreme influences are brilliantly melt together letting wide space to the melodies. It begins with a romantic guitar arpeggio but soon we are catapulted in a well composed furious attack in which we can find  even some Black elements:  from the almost screaming vocals, to some tremolo riffings. Thrashy is  the catchy  refrain, while Melodic  Death passages bind the various moments together. Guitars mantain their  raw attitude , biting and cutting with a certain  capacity of delivering distorted sounds. And are indeed again distorted and hypnotic notes that   open Embrace the Depression, that anyway immediately shows his fast Thrash face, alternated with slower passages, and very good as well is the end with the same modern melodic and hypnotic chords which contrast with the crunchy hyperfast bass drums .  Bitterness deliver also an only instrumental  track Beyond a subconscious World, almost in acoustic style:  a  sad theme in which  melodic arpeggios are the protagonists. One can recognize the typical raw style of the strings which anyway can offer a good melodious technique, with a good extension of scales. The gentle digression ends when the hard evocation  begins again with the fast and overwhelming intro of  Portal of haunting Dreams, which  gives anyway a couple of windows  for  superheavy doomy slower bridges.  

The title-track Sweet Suicide Solution is  mighty and fast, pure evil-ish , tremolo-like and haunting  in full Black style, embeddede in a    Melodic Death frame . And this song is very significative  , cause make you think that Bitterness are on the way to let the old-school Thrash influences behind, in order to evolve towards darker horizons. Question which ones?. I personally can only be really content of this evolution, but the question becomes pressing after you listen to   Chain of Command : here we  sound hyperdark , bass, uptempo but even with Doom Death insertions , with  brachial low growlings , and only some short occasional screaming. Thing confirmed by Troops of Doom that closes the album.

Suicide Sweet Solution   is able to be also a moment of maturity , with more refined techniques, and a little "opus" in itself. Though the sound is not so bombastic, like certain well expensive productions are able to create, the studio has done anyway  great work, moreover lyrics are interesting though not particularly difficult: immediate and clear. No chorus or synths  dazzle us: simply cause what Bitterness do , they do it still with the force of strings drums and their muscles. And all this MUST be considered. Finally Sweet Suicide Solutions  show a band in a brilliant evolution towards darker tones . But which ones will be  the fellow "companion- in- Death" in Bitterness' vision? this is the big uncertainty and doubt: Black or Doom? Like in all albums of transition we see here various experimentations, all faced by Bitterness in a successful way: we only need now the definitive identity. Fact is that i presume that Thrash will be left behind and will be present in future only as a background echo .  

"i wear a mask every time

nobody knows what lies behind

my inner self is cut in two 

nobody knows  the hell i'm through"

rating:  09/10 

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