ALBUM REVIEW: Ultra-Violence – Operation Misdirection

Here I review the newest album from Italian Technical Thrashers ULTRA-VIOLENCE, due out next month on Spinefarm Records!

01. Cadaver Decomposition Island kicks the thrashing riffs and killer bass guitar right in with tight drumming, insane speeds and tight production. The screamed vocals remind me of bands like Havok and it sounds absolutely awesome. The full throttle pace and great songwriting is great alongside the sheer punch of the riffs. The guitar solo sounds amazing, both in terms of production and skill, topped off with whammy bar dives and some nice scale runs, awesome stuff. The breakdown is both heavy as hell and technical, a lovely combination. The addition of a less heavy, more atmospheric section sounds beautiful. Finally the song leads out with tons of class in the form of acoustic guitars played excellently. This opening track is setting the bar very high.
02. Welcome To The Freakshow follows up with in your face riffing once more, shouted vocals and a real mosh pit vibe to it. The song seems more akin to bands like Exodus with a really great upbeat style to it and will surely be a crowd pleaser live. This track once more has tons of great riffs, shreds, drumming and phenomenal vocals. Great work!
03. My Fragmented Self leads itself in with slower paced chords and bass guitar, the creeping feel to it is a really 80s banger, with a feeling of knowing something awesome is coming, and after some pick slides and drum kicks it does. The groovy as hell riffs, with perfectly punctuating drums sounds great. The song then leads into some great bass work topped with killer vocals. This song is melodic, technical and atmospheric, brilliant track and still filled with tons of thrashy aggression. All of this is topped off with some simply amazing and very interesting lyrics to listen to. The solo on this song is combined with acoustic guitars and is super techy, it sounds so damn great. The track has some gorgeous acoustic guitars and smooth bass guitar to finish with that sounds incredibly nice
04. The Acrobat starts with some great lead work, a punk vibe to it some catchy as hell vocals. The upbeat style of this with more easy to listen to vocals contrasts the first 3 songs very nicely and has a really pleasant feeling to it. It is still full of blistering technicality but manages to be very catchy and a joy to listen to. The slap bass is super funky and this could definitely be fun to sing along to in the pit.
05. Nomophobia opens with some futuristic synths which I was not expecting at all, it sounds like something from a sci-fi show. The killer riffs soon break through once more though. The fast-paced but well organised Thrash sounds so tight and full of force. Although the production is amazing this is clearly a case of great musicians and not studio wizardry. There is nothing about this track that is predictable with the more lead style bass and softer sections breaking up the fast-paced attack, the use of synths and samples too make it sound really unique. The tapped guitars over chugging riffs leads into the solo very smoothly and the final section of the song ends it very nicely.
06. Money For Nothing is a cover of the Dire Straits, but in no way sounds like a cover but more the bands unique take on it. The song opens with some beautiful yet dissonant lead work and awesome drumming. Once again there is synths that sound very Sci-fi, the classic rock vibe of the opening riff is so great, leading into some slower paced, groovy but heavy Thrash. This song much like track 4 feels very cheerful and the vocals on both remind me of Alexi Laiho from CoB especially in their covers. The songwriting abilities of this band are incredible and in some songs especially are very original. The cleaner parts have a style that reminds me of the Punk band Rancid with the very bass and vocal driven lines, near the end there is a spoken word and bass part with some catchy drumming that sounds like something Megadeth or Municipal Waste would use. The song ends in a very chant worthy way that sounds like AC/DC have gone Thrash Metal.
07. The Stain On My Soul Remains features some ambient synths and acoustic guitars that feel epic and really create a gorgeous interlude to the album while building suspense and tension simultaneously, the creeping in of bleak sounding electric guitar almost feels like it could be a DSBM piece, if it wasn’t for the slower chord use and drumming that sounds really brutal. The built up chugging guitars add the final layer to the build, a really cool little instrumental piece for sure (excluding a bit of whispered vocals earlier on).
08. Shining Perpetuity is the final piece of the album, going back to technical and high speed riffs, insane drumming and one last round of mosh worthy Thrash. The song is probably the heaviest of the album and full of excellent musicianship, songwriting, vocals and production. This is a great example of how amazing modern Thrash Metal can be. The whole band show extreme talent and skill on this piece (as well as the others). The solos sound face melting and the whole band keep a surging momentum and monolithic heavy soundscape up for over 6 minutes. The slowed down parts with clean vocals are melodic and absolutely epic. The way this song builds up and slows and just moves around in its style is fantastic, with the spoken word in Italian over military like drums and clean guitars. Absolutely beautiful track with a bit of everything all mixed in and in a way that makes sense to me. The second solo is absolutely amazing, tons of very skilful sweeps and taps, lashings of melody and some great shredding too! The more breakdown feel of the following verse is heavy as hell but not at all boring like some breakdowns can be.

If you enjoy bands like Revocation, Havok and Decapitated (although Thrash Metal rather than Death) you must hear this. The musicianship is very strong, the vocals sound awesome, the production is tight, and the punch is insane. The album features plenty of catchy and more upbeat parts which are equally great to the heavy and technical parts. This is some of the better Thrash Metal I have heard this year so far. -8.5/10