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I didn't like much of anything on Forever Underground (of what I've heard anyway) before I popped in this Invasion album. Whoa. Call it a North American version of Desaster - not as good as those metal gods but in the same general genre, slightly more Death Metal-oriented, whereas Desaster tends more toward Black metal. The musical style is more Thrash than death, however, especially when you factor in the vocals, very dark and vicious-sounding, kind of a mix of Desaster and early Kreator. Another sound I can liken them to is Ravenous-era God Dethroned, some of the riffs and "melodies" in here could almost have been on that album. Throw in some war-zone sounds here in there for flavouring. :) Far from quiet, "Berserk Artillery Barrage" is an aural assault from beginning to end, mostly fast-paced and very aggressive, very fitting to the war theme portrayed by the band. I'm pretty sure some people will bitch at the production which isn't the cleanest, clearest out there, but this is Death/Thrash after all, not symphonic power metal - the raw production is practically a necessity to convey the brutality of the music.

The colour used for the booklet is a bit of a turn off, and I'm not too crazy about the way the lyrics are printed (still better than no lyrics at all!!) They included some war pictures from the US National Archives, the USMC Historical Collection and the Imperial War Museum, all pictures presented in a grim monochrome for maximum effect (colour war pictures just wouldn't hit you as much.) A little oddity, around the 2:04 mark in the first song, there a little chimping noise that sounds like the default Microsoft Outlook "new mail" sound... I can sure hope that it's a coincidence and that this wasn't somehow recorded with the help of a PC and that the sound was recorded inadvertently!! :) Either way, this albums kills. Highly recommended.