• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Now that's what I'm talking about! Immaculate is a Swedish Metal band and this is their second album. Being the first time I've listen to them, I didn't know what to expect (when I looked at the cover I thought that this was going to be a Heavy Metal album). However, in fact, this is a technical brand of Thrash Metal and holy shit, it kicked my ass from the first time I heard it.

Don't let the tag of "technical" deter you from listening to Atheist Crusade though, the disc is packed with tons of energy and passion. This is not one of those albums that you have to listen to a bunch of times to decide if you like it or not. This band plays fast, up to a fault but they cover that limitation with the amount of riffs and soloing that this thing has. The album only offers brief moments of relaxation, like in the middle of the title track, a necessary thing since you'll be headbanging like a mongoloid much of the time. There is also a nice cover from Fates Warning "The Apparition", and if you didn't know that you would think it's an original song.

This leads me to the lineup here. It is very solid, they keep the fast tempo with very few traces of sloppiness, amazing considering the speed in which they play. Musically they don't have anything to envy to no one but special mention should go to their singer Mika Eronen. He sounds like a young Tom Araya or Intruder's singer Jimmy Hamilton on crack. He can reach high notes but more importantly, he can sing fast and keep up with the music.

The negatives are that those same vocals are a little bit in the background and were not properly mixed (think of an early Destruction album). Everything else regarding the production values is exactly what I would want in an album of this genre. The record can get repetitive at times but that doesn't happen often, therefore the good time that I had hearing this doesn't diminish much. Atheist Crusade has a "go for the throat" approach – this is how Thrash is supposed to sound and while I don't think this is the best album of the genre of 2010, I think that every Thrash fan should get it.