Hurtlocker

I am Napalm

They

At last

Let them die

Disgust

Outside are the Dogs

Release of Sin

Destroying Bliss

Deserving

Embrace the Fall

Grant Belcher – Vocals
Tim Moe - Guitars
Justin Jurgevich - Guitars
Chris Djuricic - Bass
Tony Bettenhausen - Drums

HURTLOCKER: "Embrace the Fall" hurtlocker

Recorded at Studio One, in Racine WI, by Chris Djuricic

Fear in a Handful of Dust

preview by dalia "gryphon_spirit" di giacomo ___

The last song paradoxically

doesn't leave any aftertaste of ruin.

Hurtlocker should explain me why the formidable velociraptor titletrack "Embrace the Fall" is the closer and not the opener of this new album, follow-up to the debut "Fear And A Handful Of Dust", released again by the Austrian Napalm Records. "Embrace the Fall" is a very good album, optimally produced, marked by a signature of aggression and better development, son of the Chicago metal scene. This album is Eden for all who listen to relentless New Breed Thrash, better if hybridized with the abrasive slap from Hardcore. The more refined musical composition consists in the balance between fast Thrash, shredded solos, propelling drums, chugging guitars and breakdown loops with iterative walls of riffs. Those typical mosh/head banging evoking riffs that command to proceed like a train , knowing no hurdles on the way and that let the metallic arteries pulse at unison.. Fine psychology is to close such a monster album with the best track among all, a track that ends leaving a sense of wait, so that one suddenly asks ...oh what... is the album finished?...that's why i say it would have ideally perfect as opener. Nonetheless the tracklisting traces in accordance to a good choice. The target is wide, Hurtlocker can strike Lamb of God fans as well the Dew-Scented ones passing through Dying Fetus and Malevolent Creation Death Metal partisans. These Thrashers succeed, in tracks like They (2), At last (3) and Outside are the Dogs (6), to maintain the registers of agreeable yet monster hooks. Take in consideration the third track At last as summa of the Hurtlocker proficiency: here you can find slowing down, fast angry pace and a high speed shredding solo. Nihilist and angry, Hurtlocker invite to the mortal combat that injects force: they crush teeth and ribs, break bones, wake up the Dead, but this is not the point. The point is the good technique and the great adrenaline push, the determination of the lyrics.

Ijn few words, Hurtlocker have composed the stuff that can open the door for them to become giants of the new Thrash/Hardcore. The way of an original style is branded and, if they will mature an even more marked originality in the future, we will say then that the process is finally accomplished. In the meanwhile, please enjoy "Embrace the Fall", with its threatening feeling of imminent catastrophe, with its surprising blastbeats, with the harsh, at times guttural, reproaching vocals. Exactly those vocals that only few New Breed Thrash European bands have and that make the difference. That's why i wish for Hurtlocker much success here in Europe, after the big amount of work done at home in the US. Not by chance they have been released by a big Austrian label...right ,cause it's in Austria, methinks, that the new interesting breed of Thrash has one of its more lively nests: just think of bands like Before The Fall.

...now it blasts again in my earphones: after the eruptive, pyroclastic and hungry Deserving, now comes again my personal protégé titletrack Embrace the Fall, the attack of a classic fast Thrash rhythm empowered by blasts and an almost uninterrupted wall of giant guitar waves. The last song paradoxically doesn't leave any aftertaste of ruin. On the contrary it remains the vitality, and exactly Hurtlocker want you to run after them asking for more.

rating: 8,9/10

p.s. R.I.P. Dan Ditella

dalia di giacomo 25.07.2007

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