On the follow up to their ripping debut ‘The End They Bring’ Finnish thrash metal band Ceaseless Torment become slightly more unhinged and furious while retaining a very similar production sound. ‘Forces of Evil’ isn’t a reinvention of the band but rather a roughed-up bit of insanity for the sake of aggression. Though the recording is similar I quickly noticed a muddier guitar tone, snotted-out vocals, and riffing that seemed to be leaning towards ‘brutal thrash’ and some death/thrash influences. This makes sense in terms of the album overall but I think the first thing you’ll notice is that ‘Forces of Evil’ is not a brightly toned, or as typical as their debut.

Where the first album was deeply rooted in Kreator‘s ‘Terrible Certainty’ this record really borrows it’s riff themes from Massacra‘s ‘Final Holocaust’, Slayer ‘Seasons in the Abyss’ and a hint of Sodom in general. I love this type of thrash even if I’ve heard it before quite a bit, bands like Entrench and Hypnosia do something similar but they take it fully into death metal where Ceaseless Torment stay in the thrash lane throughout. In fact I don’t want to suggest that this release is groundbreaking or even remotely original. From my perspective that isn’t a slight, though! I love thrash metal and especially this aggressive German thrash inspired stuff that touches upon the early days of death metal and death/thrash. The biggest compliment I can give a riff-fueled thrash band is to say they reminded me of Massacra, Slayer and Messiah and I felt that way about ‘Forces of Evil’.

So, if you’re a fanatic like me this is a great classic thrash spin from a spirited Finnish band. If you need something new and modernized you’re shit out of luck and probably not the kind of guy who headbangs by himself to Kreator in his living room while vacuuming the floors. I listened to so much thrash in 2017 that I was surprised to have missed out on this one. It has its rough edges I guess, the vocalist’s change in tone was sorta off-putting at first but the riffs underneath are undeniably savage and the vocal progresses as the album plays through. It’s well worth a few spins and if you need riffs in your thrash it has tons.

My wrath leads my way. 3.0/5.0

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