Time Signature Blast...

Genre: crossover-groove-thrash

The Slovaks are back with their sophomore album and follow-up to the 2007-debut "Dies Ad Quem". "The Sun And The Flood" is a neat package of no-frills hardboiled thrash metal which rocks hard from beginning to end.

The main style on the album is thrash metal, but the band venture into death metal and hardcore punk territory. Thus, tracks like "Sick Society" and "God's Bite" feature simple death-thrash riffs side by side with heavy grooves, while songs like "Redemption" and "Self Possession" are crossover thrash tracks that also contain death-thrash elements. Needless to say, this formula works pretty well.

Not unlike Pro-Pain Eye Beyond Sight make good use of the power of groove, and I think that "The Sun And The Flood" is yet another piece of evidence that that groove and metal combined is not per se a bad thing - it all depends on how the groove implemented, and on this album it is done the right way. This is heard among others inJust check tracks like "From Stars to Scum," "That Hurts" and "Blast". There are even a couple of metalcore-like break downs now and then - but, metal purists, fear not, because this is all out metal when it all comes down.

To vocals are harsh and range from hardcore yelling to semi-growling (think Max Cavalera when he was in Sepultura). This is perhaps not something that appeals to everyone, but I think it fits both the heavy and groovy riffs and the more aggressive and uptempo thrash and crossover metal riffs equally well.

If you like simple but aggressive thrash metal that contains both groove and hardcore elements, then there is good chance that you will enjoy "The Sun and the Flood".