Reviews: The Day Of The Beast, Reinforcer (Reviews By Richard Oliver)

The Day Of The Beast - Indisputably Carnivorous (Prosthetic Records) [Richard Oliver]

Indisputably Carnivorous is the fourth album from Virginia Beach blackened metallers The Day Of The Beast and their first album for Prosthetic Records. The Day Of The Beast have a sound that sounds like a cross between thrash metal, death metal and black metal with lyrical themes being inspired by horror literature of the ilk of Clive Barker, Bram Stoker and Lovecraft. With a mix of thrash, death and black metal this is of course a heavy and frenzied sound with savage thrash riffing, death metal brutality and black metal evilness. There is quite a lot of melody prevalent as well especially in the guitar parts whilst the vocals from Steve Harris (no not that one) remain on the harsh side veering between black metal screams and a Jeff Walker style snarl.

The most effective songs are the ones where the speed and aggression are kicked up a notch with Disturbing Roars At Twilight, Black Forms Materialise and the absolute rager that is Annihilation Prayer (Shallow Be Thy Graves) being the highlights for me. Where this album suffers a bit is through a lack of variation and a lot of the songs having way too much similarity to each other. By the time you reach the end of the album there isn’t much that sticks in the memory. That being said variation isn’t everything and if you want some savage blackened death/thrash which is impeccably performed then The Day Of The Beast have very much got that covered. 7/10

Reinforcer - Prince Of The Tribes (Scarlet Records) [Richard Oliver]

Prince Of The Tribes is the debut album from German heavy metallers Reinforcer. The band are a five piece from Paderborn and are made up of Logan Lexi (vocals), Marvin Fretter (bass), Niclas Stappert (guitars), Tobias Schwarzer (guitars) and Lasse Schmiedel (drums). The band have a previously independently released EP The Wanderer from 2018 but Prince Of The Tribes is their debut full length album being released by Scarlet Records. 

Reinforcer have a sound that mixes German heavy metal and epic power metal over a collection of songs lyrically based on different historical eras and events. The songs generally retain a middling pace backed by powerful melodies, classic metal riffs and powerhouse drumming. Songs such as Black Sails (which is very reminiscent of Running Wild complete with the pirate themes) and Shieldmaiden combine these traditional metal and power metal elements well whilst Thou Shall Burn and Hand On Heart both kick the pace up a bit at times. Logan Lexi has a voice that is a bit gruffer and lower in register than your typical trad/power metal wailer but it sounds in keeping with the music and Logan remains within his boundaries as a vocalist and gives these songs a dramatic gravitas.

This is a solid piece of trad/power metal. It is something that has been done by countless other bands but the skill and enthusiasm is very apparent throughout this album and Reinforcer have a great bunch of fun, enjoyable and heroic sounding songs. 7/10