Album Review: Elm Street - The Great Tribulation
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
It’s only appropriate that on the eve of Halloween that a new album from Elm Street lands on the shelves. “The Great Tribulation” is the third album from the Australian traditional heavy metal quartet and sees the band taking on a slightly darker tone than their previous two albums and a more progressive nature to the music.
Much like their previous two albums “Barbed Wire Metal” and “Knock ‘Em Out…With A Metal Fist”, “The Great Tribulation” sounds like traditional heavy metal through the lens of a thrash metal band with the guitar riffs having a crunchier and meatier feel to them compared to a lot of traditional metal throwback bands whilst the vocals from Ben Batres are very much in a harsher thrash metal style albeit with enough melody that they don’t sound too out of place.
The album kicks off with its longest song which is the 11 minute ‘Seven Sirens’ which sees some of the bands most complex songwriting and compositional skills to date which is aptly followed by the shortest and simplest song which is also the lead single ‘Take The Night’. The strongest material is the punchiest stuff such as the crunchy ‘The Price Of War’ and the thrash heavy riffage of ‘Behind The Eyes Of Evil’. Like on previous Elm Street albums the musicianship is top tier with some excellent guitar work from the combined forces of Ben Batres rhythm playing and Aaron Adles lead work which can be heard especially on instrumental ‘The Last Judgement’.
“The Great Tribulation” isn’t as easily accessible as the previous Elm Street albums and it does lack the immediacy and punchiness of its predecessors but this is still an enjoyable listen that takes a few spins to digest. It could be classed as Elm Street’s “...And Justice For All” with its added complexity, lengthier songs and darker tone but at its heart this is still some fist pumping heavy metal with a tasty thrash edge.
