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Posted November 13, 2006
LATEST SPITS ABOUT "THE INHUMAN ABERRATION"
4/5 www.pivotalalliance.com
While some term Urkraft as being melodic death metal, it stands to note that theres plenty of tech metal influence in their sound as well. The two styles make for a good combination much of The Inhuman Aberration impresses as a crossbreeding of In Flames and Fear Factory, or an updated version of At The Gates. Keeping that in mind, Urkraft have their own thing going on. You certainly cant add the band to the list of tired, sub-standard imitators on the market these days. Nope, this group is the real deal, as evidenced on the savage, machine-like cut The Only Gods, the powerful stomper This Great Summer and the albums melodically-attuned ripper of a title track.
These Danes impress as having a good sense of what makes a song heavy. Their songwriting is quite dramatic, and the efforts of keyboardist Jeppe Eg are an important part of the equation. Thomas Strmvig Pedersen has a low, raspy growl thats at times similar to that of Shawter of Dagoba and at other times, the singers voice resembles a gruff, European version of Burton C. Bell in his younger days. Each of these factors add up to an enjoyable album on the whole. Urkraft has certainly mastered the craft of making super-heavy music. Although this sort of thing has been done before, these guys do it damn well so listen up.
8.9/10 - means "Highly Recommended" By "Maelstrom.nu"
Urkraft (Danish for "primitive force") play modern thrash metal. Nowadays this description could mean anything one of those melodic, pop-infected death metal bands too embarrassed to keep calling themselves death metal, a re-united thrash band with a new sound and old ideas, or maybe some metalcore band trying to sell more CDs to the metal-oriented audience.
Fortunately, Urkraft are none of those. They actually play modern thrash metal and they kick ass. All hail them.
And they mean business. First of all, there's no intro and they deserve a medal for that fact alone. Now, remember listening to Slaughter of the Soul or The Haunted's debut for the first time? The Inhuman Aberration brings those memories right back. From the opening of "Too Strong for the Strongest Lord," the listener is exposed to an enviable amount of top-quality riffs, highly technical, powerful, fast and, amazingly long. These are not the typical three-chord palm-muted riffs each of them is assembled from several individual ones, played using a different technique for each part and creating an impression of riffs making an inhaling and exhaling entity.
And to make things more amazing, Urkraft don't just repeat those riff-constructions without variation. With all the twists and turns, there's still a constant thrashing beat throughout the album a clinically precise, militaristic beat with a sombre atmosphere coming through. At times the music can become hypnotic, but Urkraft never fail to invent another way of violently restoring your attention just when it might have started slipping away.
The production, done by Tue Madsen in Antfarm Studio, couldn't be stronger and clearer than it is. The keyboards, applied to only the right places and playing only a couple of chords, are so effective that they instantly inject more eeriness than the whole orchestras used by other bands. The drumming is perfect, with Mikael actually being able to accentuate guitars and keep up with them, changing beats without losing the thread, never forgetting his two bass drums and adding a blastbeat or a furious filler just to shake you up. Thomas, the singer, can growl and scream as convincing as the best of them with expressions varying from melodic death metal to hardcore.
The Inhuman Aberration is one of those rare multi-faceted thrash metal albums that don't come along your way very often. You can enjoy it critically, for the sheer technicality of it. You can scream and headbang to it without trying to analyze anything. And you can listen to it in the dark, through your headphones. It always delivers. (8.9/10)
