There are few things in this world I can truly rely on, and Lich King is one of those things. For people who aren’t in the know, Lich King is a band who’ve been churning out quality thrash metal since the beginning of the resurgence. They’ve caused quite the stir over their eight year long career, with their comedic approach to heavy metal and its fans. They’ve even written a song about their hatred of black metal, simply entitled, Black Metal Sucks. Nice, eh? I thought so. But barring all the comedy and theatrics, you have yourself a band who is on their fourth full length release, and are truly showing their maturation – this is their coming of age album.
As you make your way through Born Of The Bomb, you will be treated to some of the finest riffing thrash has to offer. From the varied tempos, quick lightening bursts up and down the fretboard, solos that will make you jump off your feet and unveiling the air guitar to unsuspecting passers-by, to the all out ragers like In The End Devastation; all will remind of you why it is you even like thrash metal in the first place. These riffs will be etched into your thrash-y brain for quite some time to come. With songs like Wage Slave, with its blazing intro and frantic energy, you’ll find yourself coming to a slow down as the song collects its thoughts, leaving you space to breathe while taking in its melody and progressive influence, only to thrust you, without a seconds notice, right back into the Lich King world of pain. You also have songs like Agnosticism, which breaks the eight minute mark, yet fails to bore and lends even more evidence to the superior song writing that Lich King puts out for us all.
Barring the awesome songwriting, Tom Martin has truly out done himself this time. His odd sounding voice is versatile enough to handle the faster passage, and sounds engulfing when need be – Agnosticism being perfect homage to that. Personally, as with the songwriting, this is Tom Martin’s finest hour. Another aspect that Lich King has truly stepped up is the production. The production is crisp, clear, and big. Not to belittle their other albums, but for an independently financed album, this sounds good and will give any labeled release a serious run for its money.
Overall, this is the defining Lich King album. Newcomers to Lich King – this is the album for you. And for all the old fans, you’ll find yourselves more than happy. Everything is here, and YES, the signature comedy is still there as well. Plus, there’s a guest appearance by Patrick Lind and Jay Visser of Morbid Saint – so how can you lose? Simply put; you can’t.
9/10
About the Author
Anyway I'm one of the co-founders of Axis Of Metal, which I created out of a love for all things heavy. Admittedly my first foray into music wasn't so heavy. At twelve i developed a love for grunge music, which then lead to a love of classic rock, and punk. Then as I consumed almost every piece of music in said genres I needed something with a bit more intensity, and something more extreme. One day I was walking through the halls in my high school, and i heard music blasting out of someone's headphones, and it was exactly what I was looking for. So after I found out that it was Slayer's "Disciple" I went home that day, and listened to every song Slayer had ever released, and that's how it all started.
So that's my story, so why not go out and listen to me blabber on, on the podcast or go and read what the Axis Of Metal's writing team has to say. Axis of Metal is created by metal heads, for metal heads.
