http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/d_2/deathtale-apocalyptic.htm
Deathtale
Apocalyptic Deadline
by Lior "Steinmetal" Stein at 14 June 2012, 12:31 PM
There are occasions when I am lost for words, periods of time when it is hard
for me to express my appreciation, or lack of appreciation in several cases,
towards an artist's work. After listening to the new album of the German Thrash
/ Death Metal band, DEATHTALE, named "Apocalyptic Deadline", I had a pretty good
idea of how I felt about it yet I couldn't blabber about it that much as I would
have wanted. Nonetheless, I am no quitter. All and above, I came across an old
school influenced release maintained with modern layers. Frankly I had no
expectations to begin with so I took this one with a clear mind. Unfortunately
it was just one of those releases that didn't make a breakthrough.
DEATHTALE, born, bread and raised from the ashes of DEMOLITION (I think that I
heard of them but not actually listening to any material), has been playing hard
in the vein of DEMOLITION HAMMER, early VADER, early SODOM and early SEPULTURA
(Right before the SLAYERish manifestation). It is tough and a little raw kind of
Thrash with a frontman barking growls of various mixtures. The rhythms were
pretty steady and quite common for the genre, mixing the US and EU approaches
while taking more points of the EU markers. Nonetheless, the riffing began to
sour a bit on the last four tracks, not that on a few of the prior ones those
were solid gold, due to utter repetitiveness which caused me to drop and nap
from time to time. Even with some of the lead guitar works, which a number of
them were fairly nice, there was what seemed to me like lack of enthusiasm. Sure
that the band hit with "Deathtale" and "Imagine The Pain", delivering great
vocalic work, ample riffing and chopping rhythms, but those two were the only
strong points while other only shared a mutual potential of could have beens. "Blood
Trail" is maybe one of those that are a little beyond the average thanks to a
fine diversity on the bridges, but it is clearly not enough for a superb release.
"Apocalyptic Deadline" is an all out anger with no remorse. It was created to
attack and its well delivered sound is just another proof of that. Devoted
Thrashers would probably like to have a taste and I recommend that, but if you
are looking for more spice, it might not serve you well. So it seemed that I
actually had something to say after all, regretfully it was towards the negative
side of things, yet it doesn't end here with DEATHTALE right?
6/10