Stay Pure D.I.Y

Endless Recovery - 'Revel in Demise' - Full-lenght - 2015

It is a rarity nowadays to find a really worthy old-school thrash metal band, from the thousands generic ones that appear weekly. Of course, the style maybe has been too exploited and not much is left for young bands to experiment on, but leaving a significant mark in the compositions is what makes you a band. I am glad I found Endless Recovery to have the opportunity to write a few lines about the mark they are leaving. The band was formed in 2011 in the capital of Greece – Athens. Since then the band has released two EPs: ‘Liar Priest’ in 2012 and ‘Resistant Bangers’ in 2014. Between these releases, the album that made them fall deeper in the underground mayhem got out, the greatly accepted by thrashers everywhere ‘Thrash Rider’. Since their forming, the band went through some line-up changes and today the only member from the original four is the drummer Mike M. The guitarist Tasos P., and his colleague Panos A., responsible for the bass and the backing vocals, joined in 2012. The vocal is the latest addition, completing the current line-up in 2013. Prior to this album, Endless Recovery have been releasing and album/EP every year, so they are a pretty active band. Another thing I want to mention is that Witches Brew is a trusted label, from point of view, and I have never been disappointed by the choices they make, regarding the bands they support. So let’s get into what happens on ‘Revel in Demise’.

The album has a playing time of almost 42 minutes, which is pretty much descent for a thrash band. I really consider thrash to be a form of short songs expressions, because there is always the risk of the album transforming into too boring. ‘Sinister tales’ sets off with some fast guitar leads and melodies that last for about a minute, before melting into the straight forward, teutonic thrash inspired ‘Revel in demise’. There is literally no savior from the fast drums and disharmonized riffs. Pretty much the band chose the 80’s central European thrash movement as an inspiration. Choose anyone from Sodom to Destruction to compare them with, but it is unwise to do that, as they bring here something more concrete, in means of song construction and the aggregation of the riffs. ‘Reaping fire’ comes next, continuing the same insane pace from its predecessor. I liked the part of isolated drums and bass in this one a lot. The fourth song is ‘Storming death’ and I consider it to be my top track on this album. It has some specific intro, quite hardcore, and a lot of interesting solo lines. The rest is the same old straight forward thrash, especially visible in the punk choired chorus. In ‘Leather militia’, coming next, the best solos have been played on this album, a direct A+ for Tasos. This is the song where the black metal influenced side of the vocal comes to the highlight point. Moving on, the guitarist still provides us with good solos and difficult riffs in ‘Trapped in a vicious circle’ and ‘Blood countess’. Trapped… is better composition where some rhythm changes occur and it really gives good dynamics to the album as a whole. ‘Hypnos’ is also a song with good dynamics and turnovers of the rhythm. The album finished its spinning cycle with the equally fast, aggressive and dirty thrash anthems ‘Evoke perdition’ and ‘Lurking evil’. From the production aspect these guys tried to stick to the quality from the German 80’s metal scene. It is not minimalistic, but it also isn’t as clean as we are used of hearing nowadays bands. Maybe a little effort should have been put on creating some ‘wiser’ lyrics, which stand out of the ordinary metal and evil inspired topics. Keep an eye on these Greek thrashers for the years to come, and watch out in they come to play live in your town, because a few broken bones at their gigs is probably a common situation.