SUICIDAL ANGELS
SUICIDAL ANGELS “Profane Prayer”
By Dr. Abner Mality
If you’re wondering what blackened thrash metal sounds like in 2024, “Profane Prayer” is a pretty decent blueprint. It seems to cover all the bases of what you would want in such a band and while it never reaches the apex of thrash, it is never less than professional.
SUICIDAL ANGELS hail from Greece and have been banging away since 2001. That’s 23 years and is nothing to sneeze at, even if the only constant in the band is singer/guitarist Nick Mellisourgos. Nick is a guy who knows what he wants, sticks to it and hires the guys he thinks can best do the job. Now SUICIDAL ANGELS is not the real down and dirty thrash you see in the deep underground...the sound here is too polished for that...but it does bring the energy. They remind me a bit of modern day KREATOR, mixed with a touch of blackness you’d find in NECROPHOBIC. Lots of speed, but plenty of room for melody. And not any surprises, except perhaps in the length of songs like “Deathstalker” and “The Fire Paths of Fate”. Those show a willingness to do more than just three and a half minute bangers.
You get those here as well. The straightforward classic thrash blaze of “Crypts of Madness” and “Virtues of Destruction” will scratch the primal itch. Some great chugging tempos show up on “When Lions Die” and the title track. The production is kind of what you’d expect from Nuclear Blast...clear as a bell, but not very “live” sounding. I liked the semi-melodic crunch of “Return of the Reaper” a lot and think this might be the best direction for the ANGELS to go in. At almost 10 minutes, “The Fire Paths of Fate” has some impressively epic moments but that length is really pushing things to the limit.
This is a professional, satisfying attack of varied thrash.