The Scourger - Dark Invitation to Armageddon
Stay Heavy Records
Melodic Death/Thrash Metal
11 songs (51:58)
Release year: 2008
The Scourger
Reviewed by Thomas

Even though it was released early and got lots of good press this somehow slipped under my radar for all of 2008. When something gets compared to The Crown I take notice and so should everyone else. The Scourger has been around for six years now, and this is their second full-length Dark Invitation to Armageddon. Melodic Death metal is an overflowing scene, and new bands pop up all the time just for the sake of disappearing again not long after because of the lack of success. Some bands do however manage to keep the machinery going, generic or not. It’s a genre that is hard to re-invent and that definitely has seen its glory days, there are however bands like The Scourger who tries to make something in the same spirit of the glorious nineties. Who can complain when it’s done properly, without the pestering core-ish breakdowns and the increasingly annoying clean sissy vocals?

The first thing that hits me is that the comparison to The Crown is actually strikingly precise. Jari Hurskainen’s rapid screams are rooted in the same morbid territory as Johan Lindstrand’s, as he squeezes out every rasp as if it was a matter of life and death. The thrash-y edge of the guitars and the furious drumming is also highly functioning limbs of this face-stomping beast. This is a fine mix of melodic death metal and thrash. Not the Gothenburg melodeath, but rather the rawer and more intense style of the mentioned The Crown and Defleshed. The Scourger are however leaning farther into the melodic part of the pool than any of the above, and the speed isn’t as breathtaking either. On the other hand, this is far from anything called mid-paced as axe-men Jani Luttinen and Antti Wimman lets it rip from the first scourging moment of No Redemption. The Finnish riff-machine churns out riff after riff on every possible break, and the lead work is exactly what you’d expect. Fast, technical and clean as a whistle. You’ll find riffs here that are linked to both old-school and blackened thrash metal as well as death metal with a more melodic approach. This is completely free of the core-ish breakdowns that you’ll likely to find on pretty much every other melodeath record nowadays. Can you ask for more? The band does a good job on keeping the intensity and aggression up, also excluding soft clean vocals. This is pretty much the recipe through Dark Invitation to Armageddon which in short can be summed up as fast, aggressive and melodic thrash/death metal. All this does leave little room for variation though, which is the main problem with this. No matter the quality, this fails to wholly impress me as an accomplished deliberate release. This is a very fun listen for the first 6-7 spins; however, this isn’t anything you’ll keep in your stereo forever because you can’t stop listening to it. It does not contain all the desired hooks that, say The Crown possess.

It should be taken into consideration that this is only The Scourger’s second release. It’s good for what it is, and they manage to produce fun and highly enjoyable thrash-y and melodic death metal. The musicianship is excellent, but could be put to use in other ways. Hence, I’ll label the songwriting the main problem here, and something they should work on. It shouldn’t be a problem really, as none of the songs sounds directly forced. There are some definite gems here such as the title-track In the Hour of Ruin and Last Nail in the Coffin. Other than that the album ranges from generic to damn good. If you like your melodic death metal, and thrash metal for that matter, you should give these guys a listen as chances are that you’ll find them to be as enjoyable as I did. Nothing groundbreaking neither nothing new, just downright kickass tunes that are easy to rock out to even if they get a little too similar now and then.

MySpace
Killing Songs :
No Redemption, In the Hour of Ruin, Dark Invitation to Armageddon, Last Nail to the Coffin
Thomas quoted 82 / 100
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