The Forsaken
“Traces of the Past”
(Century Media)
Sweet Chocolate Christ is this one helluva thrash record! When I read in their press release that this CD was almost not even released in the U.S., I thought, Oh boy more Euro-trash to clog up an already overpopulated U.S. metal market, but after the first song my preconceived notions quickly did a 180. This is some seriously intense Swedish Thrash / death metal with all the fixins. I’m talking well placed solos, sledge hammer style riffage, and enough triplets to churn a year’s supply of butter; all delivered in a tighter than spandex fashion. To sweeten the deal for us fat lazy Americans, The Forsaken even decided to throw some extra cover tracks onto their U.S. release tipping their hats to the likes of Metallica, Slayer, and Grave. As a Metallica fan from back in the day, I can honestly say that I have a new favorite version of “Creeping Death”. The only thing I can even come close to critiquing are the death metal style vocals that get a bit bland at times, other than that, any fan of true metal should take this little doozy for a test spin.
