Time Signature War...

Genre: thrash metal You will be forgiven if you think that, judging on their name, that sorrowed is a doom metal band. Heck, I made that assumption, too. But doom metal is not what you get on this album. Sorrowed is a thrash metal band with melodic tendencies and that is what you get if you listen to this thier debut album.

The band has been active for more than ten years but only now do they release their debut At the Ruins. Prior to this, they released a string of demos, and soe of the songs found on those demos are also included here. Musically, as mentioned, the listener is treated to thrash metal with a melodic twist. Sorrowed draw on classic thrash metal as heard in 'I Am Pain', but the album also features blastbeats (also heard in 'I Am Pain'), and, through an inspiration from melodic death metal, there are also elements of classic heavy metal to be heard on the album, as hear in, for instance 'Hateregret'. At the core of the sound on the album, however, is aggression, which is expressed on both the classic thrash metal riffa and the harsh vocals.

Having been around for more than ten years (we're closer to fifteen actually) the Finns are naturally quite experienced musicians, which defintiely shines through on this album. There seems to be an overarching inspiration from Carcass' two last albums as well as At The Gates' legendary Slaughter of the Soul on At the Ruins, but not to the extent that Sorrowed can be accued of being rip-offs – they are simply too experienced to fall into that trap, I think. The production is also crisp and well-defined without being polished.

Fans of melodic thrash metal with a brutal edge, and of brutal thrash etal with a melodic edge, should definitely check out Sorrowed's debut album At the Ruins. It's solid, thrashy and rocks like a ton of bricks.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)