Friday, December 28, 2012

Weapons to Hunt - Blessed In Sin




Weapons to Hunt play mid to fast paced death thrash with a streak of swe-death and some, but not a lot of melody. The riffing is somewhat like the old Florida death/thrash style, but the feel is more like Swedish death metal, though not as crushing as the Sunlight sound, a bit more streamlined for thrash. The vocals are pretty smooth for growls, not ferocious nor emotive, they're solid and fit the music well, but they're not really distinct. It's a style with plenty that is familiar to any death metal, comfortable but not exceptional.

The riffing is solid, and it sounds best when they juxtapose it with something a bit slower or more melodic. The band is at their strongest not with, but all around these sections, since it contrasts and makes the faster sections seem faster and more aggressive. Sometimes they thrash away for a long time, getting monotonous - more than a few similar riffs in a row and their effect is diminished. There's nothing extremely fast, but there's not much that's slow either, a lot of it blends together into death metal that's a bit faster than mid paced, a bit slower than high speed thrash, and works its way into where what it is doing is predictable, it's going to be somewhat aggressive and fast, but it isn't highlighted by the arrangements nor the rest of the music. WTH could display their strengths better if they framed their riffs a bit better with subtle or overt dynamic changes.

The drumming is good, it stands out at the right points due to separating riffs and moving the music with fills when it's not blasting. Still, it does get stuck in the same monotony that plagues and otherwise strong performance by the whole band. They've got one speed that they're comfortable at and they cruise at that a bit too much. Any breaks around that tend to offer a strong point where they found something else that'll fit well, though it gets a bit rough at times, it is welcome.

Weapons to Hunt don't reinvent anything nor are they the best at what they do, they're one of many Swedish bands in a sea of good bands, but if you're a fan of the death end of death/thrash, you'll probably enjoy this. You know what you're getting.


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