Creozoth? What kind of name is Creozoth? My, admittedly quick, Google search on the word only brought up reviews of this album and retail sites selling the album. I may not have found any meaning behind the name, but some good did come of those searches. I found out a bit of where some of the band members came from, I'll get to that later.
As I slipped the disk into the CD player, I had no idea what was in store. Would I be faced with some crappy nu-metal? Perhaps some generic black metal? That's it, I was thinking it was going to be some other soundalike black metal act. I was wrong. This album crushes some serious concrete.
The album opens with the heavy riffs of "With the Flow", giving us a taste of the power/thrash metal combination that was yet to come. That leads into another dose of metallic mayhem, "Stares Back." Other highlights include "Intoxicatedead," "Bad Day," and "You Don't Know."
There was another band that kept going through my head as Creozoth's debut played through my speakers, Testament. I don't know why, but the sound seemed to remind me of that powerhouse of the 80's. The speed and technical prowess is there, the raspy lead singer is there too. It is that combination of power metal and thrash metal which hearkens back to the heyday of thrash in the US that makes this disk go down so easy.
The band has a pretty good pedigree to build from. Members include guitarist Lars Johansson and drummer Jan Lindh from Candlemass and also former Yngwie Malmsteen vocalist Michael Storck. All I can say is that they sound great together, in particular Johansson and Storck. Rounding out the lineup is bassist Tobbe Moen, who fills out the sound with his low end addition.
Lars Johansson's riffs really carry this album. Heavy, fast, chunky, if only more metal could be along these lines. Something that has always attracted me to the metal music is the sheer heaviness that some bands were able to create, Creozoth delivers. On the vocal side, Michael Storck has a good balance between rasp and range to deliver a vocal style that is reminiscent of the classic 80's acts yet still fits in today with no loss of relevance.
Bottomline. This album was a complete surprise to me. Not quite a classic, but a powerful new entry in the metal scene. This one is definitely worth seeking out and adding to your metal rotation.
Recommended.
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