Album Review: Suicidal Angels - Profane Prayer
Reviewed by Matthew Williams
The gentle serene opening of opening track 'When the Lions Die' doesn’t quite prepare you for what is about to be unleashed, as Greek thrashers, Suicidal Angels, open the gates of hell and set about a frenetic pace of controlled aggression that will crush any non-believers in its path.
Formed in Athens, Greece back in 2001, Suicidal Angels are led by guitarist/vocalist Nick Melissourgos, and are now back with a vengeance after the 2019 release of 'Years of Aggression' with nine insane tracks, and there really is no let up from start to finish, with the riffs spread across the songs, so get prepared for the heaviness to disembowel you.
After a few changes over the years, the band now have a settled line up, and with that comes a unity and trust, to take the band onto another level. With tours and festival slots forthcoming, this really is an album that should see them increase their fan base amongst metal heads worldwide. There’s nobody out there who can listen to 'Crypts of Madness' with it’s wonderful anthemic line of “where evil shall be born” or the following track 'Purified by Fire'” and not be amazed at the spell bindingly awesome riffs that are coming back at you from Gus Drax, full of venom and hatred.
This is exactly what gets me excited about thrash metal, and why I love the genre so much, because it’s an album full of surprises, and that’s exactly what 'Deathstalker' gives you, as it varies in tempo, and it’s mood swings like a hormonal sixteen year old, before they get back down to normal service, with drumming machine Orfeas Tzortzopoulos taking charge of things on title track “Profane Prayer” which is like an assault on your senses.
Put together with the rest of the tracks; 'The Return of the Reaper' is a classic old school mosh type song, with catchy riffs all over the place and a chorus just begging to be screamed out in a packed venue, 'Guard of the Insane' with its lovely bass intro from Angelos Lelikakis, bounce along rhythm and stinging lead solo, and the rager that is 'Virtues of Destruction', this album is raging on all fronts.
And it all leads to the final, epic masterpiece that is 'The Fire Paths of Fate', which they didn’t set out to record, as it’s nearly ten minutes long, but with its spiritual and haunting vocal dispersed across it, combined with the massive bruising riffs, it gives you a song that keeps you glued to the end. It is almost biblical in its delivery and they’ve left no stone unturned in pursuit of an album that may well catapult them to a higher plain.
