Deathtale are Vienna’s flag bearers for thrash in the 21st century. Born from two members of earlier thrash outfit Demolition, bassist Phillip Späth and drummer Tom Kräutner were looking to branch off and put their own brand of thrash out. Now we are three albums in and nearly ten years of existence later, so where are we at with Deathtale?
Having listened to their previous efforts before giving this one a go, I was sort of dreading it as I didn’t think they had much going for themselves. Some pretty dull riffs, dull production and not much excitement contained within. With ‘The Origin Of Hate’, things are…better. Much better in fact, as the production has been sharpened as has the tone, the guitars sound sharper and there are some real moments of high quality thrash.
Granted that their style is not uncommon nowadays, with many bands going for the death/thrash combination, but it’s a style that I personally like and Deathtale are getting quite adept at it. I also like how Patrick Pieler’s vocals remind me of Exhorder vocalist Kyle Thomas, that’s a nice touch there. There’s some solid riffs throughout and the leadwork works nicely when Arian Rezaie layers in harmonised parts like in ‘The Heretic’. There are some nice clean passages in ‘Embrace The Fire’ before the song goes into some rather Lamb Of God-esque motions, but at least there’s some variety in there.
The main problem with this album is that it sounds like so many other albums out there, but there are still some solid parts and a good portion of groove to enjoy. Pick of the album is ‘Bloodgod’ for me as it employs a pretty heavy riff and opens with some nice lead work. All in all, getting better but not anything superbly special or significant. Still, I’d like to see Deathtale on the road, but as a supporting act as they’re not quite there yet for me. I’m sure there’s more to the tale and Deathtale will be back with some more Austrian force in the near future.
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