Album Review: Desecrator - Summoning
Reviewed by Gareth Pugh
Australian thrashers Desecrator appeared on my radar a few years ago when the title track of their first studio album 'To the Gallows' appeared in my recommendations on some streaming platform or other. I gave it a listen and was immediately drawn by the band's take on my favourite genre. They certainly take a lot of influence from the old school, but with very much a contemporary spin, and also using melody at the fore, and while they are very much a thrash band, there's more than a nod to the classic and more trad-metal scene.
'Summoning' is technically the bands 2nd album, although they have released an E.P. and took the unprecedented, strange, and yet cool decision to make their first release a live album; 'Til Death', produced by the legendary Harris Johns (Sodom, Kreator, Voivod, etc, etc) which in a time of clean, sterile digital recordings was an honest, loud and raw statement.
Back to the present 'Summoning' starts with a 30 second haunting intro 'Raise the Dead' which segues nicely into the title track, riffs spewing forth all over the place, before the band settle into an uptempo groove before the individual vocal tones of main man Riley Strong cut in, his voice is a large part of the unique charm of this band, and the closest I can compare him to is Ron Reinhart from the legendary Dark Angel, the verse barrels along nicely, while the chorus is designed to be a live classic with it's call and refrain nature, there's some great catchy harmony guitar parts and the cheeky false endings will throw you, until you suddenly realise your into second track 'Hate at First Sight', which picks up the pace leaving you short of breath before it bludgeons you around the head with its fat chunky breakdown, again huge hooks take this up a notch from the norm.
