Eruption - Cloaks Of Oblivion (EN)

Eruption deliver us a truly awesome bullet on their third album "Cloaks Of Oblivion". Founded in 2004, they already released two longplayers "Lifeless Paradise" (2009) and "Tenses Collide" (2012).

The album packs a punch. Especially the development compared to the last album is remarkable. The foundation consists of hard Thrash in the manner of the Bay Area merged with US Power Metal. That's how an explosive mixture of Testament, Forbidden, Helstar and Nevermore/Sanctuary is created. This is also written in the leaflet and can be transfered just like that no ifs, no buts.

Regarding the songs, these are elaborated works from true hardness to progressive, melodic metal. You only have to hear the fast guitar work of "Drones" paired with the hammering drums and you immediately want to train your neck muscles. Furthermore, you get THE vocalist. This guy really is something. He sings, shrieks, hisses and yells with a fervor that can make you shiver in fear. Frequently, he sounds like a mixture of Warrel Dane and James Rivera. That's something you normally only find in the congeneric Communic, which sound similar awesome, but less straight and rather melancholic. Now and then a few less Screams would have been better, but that's a matter of taste. I feel the same with newer stuff of Helstar for example.

The great thing about this album is that it really lives up tp the theme of Thrash. The tracks are produced technically in a high-quality without sounding too overpowered. There is always a mixture of straight-lined clopping parts and technical pieces of skill. As an example for this, I'd like to name "The Yearning" with its conjured middle part and following blastbeat-frenzy.

The production turned out neatly bold and modern without sounding too sterile. I hope this won't develop into voices like in the above mentioned Communic, which label the whole thing as a copy. This way you don't do justice to neither band, even though the direction is clearly recognizable.

Conclusion:
The album easily entertains (almost) all along the line. Not all songs can be rated as a very high quality but the weaker songs such as "Reborn In Demise" are no reason to push the skip-button. If you like Thrash with a certain class and the above mentioned bands, you should get a hold of this album.

Rating: 8,5/10

Recommendation: Drones