Opening with an ominous bass riff, Act of grace quickly engulfs the listener in the type of up-tempo, massive, guitar riffs that Ride the lightening era Metallica would be proud to call their own. Everything from the production to the packaging has been painstakingly put together by this, most brutal of Polish thrash bands. Reminiscent of Testament at their finest, Virgin Snatch combine melody with throat ripping roars to immense effect and if this album doesn’t see them stretching beyond the confines of Poland, then it will be a criminal injustice to a talented and ambitious band.
If ‘Act of grace’ seems heavy then Horn of plenty manages to sound like Obituary jamming on the set of the Terminator. The drums pound away at you while Łukasz ‘Zielony’ Zieliński’s vocals simply tear away anything that’s left from the merciless pounding of the riffs. Heavy as hell but also boasting a strong sense of melody, don’t confuse this with metal-core or some lame Killswitch Engage predictability, this is old school thrash and VS are serious contenders to join their heroes Testament as leaders in a genre packed with aspiring bands. ‘Through fight we grow’ introduces an acoustic introduction and provides a marginally slower respite from the heavy-duty riffing on display before lurching off into another maelstrom of noise that brings to mind Machine Head’s genre-defining ‘Davidian’ – that good. Meanwhile M.A.D (make a donation) comes tearing at you like Pantera crossed with Dimmu Borgir with its chugging guitars and deranged vocal performance.
This is a brutal album from an incredibly talented group of musicians. If it has a fault then it is that there are moments that could be seen as derivative, but when an album draws comparisons to Machine Head, Testament and Pantera then it’s hard not to be carried away with sheer, monumental ability on show and while VS have yet to make a genre-defining statement as the aforementioned band have, this is still a damned strong metal album that will leave you bouncing around the room with a huge grin on your face for days. Tracking down a copy (they are readily available from this Polish site: http://www.mystic.pl/ ) is highly recommended.
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