Guillotine

Blood Money

Pulverized Records 2008

After an 11 year silence Sweden's Kreator worshipping thrashers, Guillotine return with their second album.  While not as raw as their debut album, Under the Guillotine, Blood Money is still a well honed thrashing machine.  Blood Money opens in fearsome fashion with Insane Oppression.  A scorching main riff and razor-sharp vocals call to mind Coma of Souls era Kreator at their most reckless.  The third track, Insanity, breaks from the norm on this album and veers into Bay Area thrash, a la Exodus, with crunchy riffs for the majority of the song though the chorus is somewhat more melodic.  Liar screams of Extreme Aggression era Kreator with its rapidly paced main riff which slows down for a pounding chorus that froths into a boil by its climax.  However the guitar solos are extremely melodic and speak more of the Gothenburg style of songwriting than of Teutonic thrash.  Skeleton City has a more rockin' core to it while the chorus is somewhat melodic and almost possesses a tone of sadness.  That "Germanic thrash main riff with melodic chorus" theme repeats several times on this album including Dying World whose melodic line reminds me for some reason of the old Swedish death metal band Desultory.   Another song that veers slightly into the territory of "other influences" is Our Darkest Day which has somewhat of a Slayer feel to it as it stampedes forward at a rocket pace however the chorus once again slows things down for some pounding bass drum work.  Blood money is a polished thrash album that possess flawless and powerful production.  Not necessarily the best thrash album I have heard this year, Guillotine have crafted a deadly slab of METAL that not only speaks well for them but also is surprising at how good it is after such a long layoff.