ALBUM REVIEW: Chainbreaker – Lethal Desire

Here I review the heavily anticipated debut album from Thrash/Speed Metallers CHAINBREAKER! Another (presumably killer) release from Hells Headbangers to sink my teeth into! Release date is February 15th!

1. Atomica opens with sampling and a real desolation to the wind sounds use before kicking into thrashing riffs, upbeat drums and some killer grooves. The harsh vocals perfectly top the grinding instrumentals that just belt out some totally strong Speed Metal fury. The catchy pace and primal aggression of the music is immediately appealing to me with the old school vibes perfectly captured. The blistering guitar solo is suitably chaotic featuring a more whammy oriented attack that works much better with this music than some overly technical shred work. An absolutely killer opening track!
2. Born Loud drives right back in with morbid riffing that has a quite Swedish Death Metal feel to it, the frenzied howls of the vocalist are torn right from the 80s with a hideously harsh attack to them. The music is unrelenting, blasting us with decimating prowess and total chaos, totally consistent throughout. The mix of genres make an array of extremity with something for any fans of Metal that pushes out sheer brutality, aggression and mayhem. The more shred style solo sounded killer with some gorgeous work put into it, much like the rest of the song. Excellent!
3. Chainbreaker starts with groovy riffs, soaring leads and pummelling drums. The vocals soon join and go right back to obliterating intensity from the whole band with their primitive assaults at high speed. We are given some much darker undertones on this song which are just glorious to behold, a totally infiltrating piece of Metal mania!
4. Get Yer Feed grinds out more killer rhythm and lead work alike, punishing us with its extremely catchy yet grisly attack. The band are firing out pure old school hellish bangers back to back so far. This song has attitude, groove and a gorgeously hateful feel to it. There is truly nothing to dislike on this track for me, absolutely amazing. The slower parts are a headbangers heaven, something their label have no difficulty putting out regularly.
5. Lethal Desire caught me completely off guard by introducing Doom Metal elements to the mix of diverse Metal genres. The morbid riffs are followed by blasting out more hellish mania at full speed. High octane instrumentals with piercing vocals are what we are given this time around which contradict the doomy beginning beautifully. Great work!
6. Methalina is immediately recognisable as some old school NWOBHM worship with churning riffs, a storming attitude and punchy rhythm that is so damn cool. The gruesome vocals beautifully suit the in-your-face instrumentals that scream of bands like Witchfynde but with a more extreme, harsher twist that is executed to perfection. There are also some touches that feel inspired by W.A.S.P. that work surprisingly well within such a brutal track, wonderfully done.
7. Leatherized hits us right in the face with some absolutely gorgeous riffs and built in drums that drop right into absolutely bedlam. The vocalist performs his stunningly sleazy lyrics perfectly over the intense mayhem of the instrumentals. Guitar solos that elevate the piece with upbeat, old school shreds complete the mix which brings me onto how time perfect the production is at getting the vibe of the music absolutely nailed.
8. Constant Graving takes us into even more crushing grooves that are menacingly awesome, topped with a short lead line before grinding out a primal energy that hits us with barrages of aggression and unrelenting hate. The track has a similar crawling grind to it that “Wolverine Blues” by Entombed has, while musically not very similar, the pacing is just as intensely attitude driven. A well paced and tense piece of maniacal Metal fury with a stunningly punky solo.
9. Hellbound belts out more cracking old school riffs, upbeat precise drumming, thunderous bass, soaring leads and snarled vocals. The flow between the songs has been consistently excellent with many similarities but also a surprising amount of variation for the style that has been all killer. This track is a catchy, anthemic piece of Thrash Metal insanity that should get everyone yelling along to the chorus and windmilling. Brilliant!
10. Postmortem Dreams goes back to doomy riffs that are incredible. The atmospheric touches and really nice transition to the more upbeat follow up are a recipe for some very Death-Doomy material which works surprisingly well in a Thrash/Speed album but this band seem to pull off almost every genre in Metal within such a short album perfectly. This song is beautifully built up with some dissonant touches that fades it into shredding guitar mayhem with high velocity grinding riffs and drum beats being thrown at us from all angles. A fascinatingly unique and fantastic track!
11. March Of The Dead picks up the pace briefly, followed by some lovely tapping work before dropping right into full speed assaults once more. The ridiculously fast pace from the whole band met with abruptly shouted vocal torments sounds absolutely killer with an almost unmistakable South American Thrash Metal feel to the music. A chaotic endeavour into the bands speed skills and ferocity right here that brings the end into sight but without fading out at all.
12. The List is sadly the closing piece for this album, that while short has felt like an eternity, not due to it being boring, due to the immense amount of variation in such short tracks. Taking a more atmospheric start that definitely has a fast build to marching riffs and upbeat drums, once again giving us a slice of raw extremity filled with attitude and spite. This sleazy piece of old school violence was a killer closing song for a decimating album.

This album was a killer journey into Speed / Thrash Metal with plenty of Black and Death influence too. Fans of Whipstriker, Destroyer 666, Bonehunter, Sarcofago and that style of band are going to love this. A great release that just destroys from start to end, giving us almost every subgenre of Metal mixed into a roughly half hour album! A ridiculously good debut from a band I will definitely keep on my radar. Totally furious, frenzied and fantastic! -8.5/10