Prophecy 23, The - …To the Pit

Band: The Prophecy 23
Album: …To the Pit
Genre: Death / Thrash Metal
Release Date: 16th July 2010
Label: Massacre Records



Album Review

Germany’s THE PROPHECY 23 has been grinding their guitars and teeth since 2001. After their successful debut, ‘No Future for the Dead’, the band took their time with shows and trying to find a sound that was a bit better than any of the other thrash bands out there. Finally, they’ve created ‘…To the Pit’, a furious blend of the thrash riffs of the likes of SLAYER and the death metal growls of HYPOCRISY to create something brutal and catchy at the same time. The result is a devastatingly good album.

‘Brutal Thrash Maniacs’ features plenty of groove and distortion, but the death metal vocals come in clear and loud over the mess. The drums tend to hover in the background and keep up a steady, thumping pace. Fans will have no problem getting right into this album with this particular track. There are even some gang vocal choruses to pump the adrenaline to maximum, as well some cleaner vocal work that makes the music sound even more like SLAYER. However, it’s the death metal vocals that really bring out the music because they are so clean, and when involved around more mid tempo, catchier music, are much more appreciated as well because they’re actually understandable for a little bit. ‘From the Basement to the Pit’ is a bit heavier but features more intense chugging from the guitars which actually features thicker rhythm rather than obliterate it altogether. And of course, the solos certainly wake anyone up who may fall asleep.

As exciting as the album may get, the problem is that THE PROPHECY 23 cash in on their death thrash formula a little too often. After a while, aside from the first few seconds, the tracks tend to sound all the same. The music is infectious, but even the most catchy songs can wear out on people if played too much. It’s like playing the same track about ten times over, and after a while the listener ends up having enough of the track and switches to something else. It becomes hard to tell the difference between a track like ‘23 Thrash B.C.’ and ‘Struggle to Survive’. Both are catchy, but both also start out with the SLAYER like vocals and switch to the death growls before fading out and in for groove effect. The only real standout track from the others is the final track, ‘Honor.Torture.War’ because the thrash formula is taken away and instead the music sounds like a gritty intense death metal track or something similar to grindcore… probably grindcore because it is so short.

THE PROPHECY 23 is certainly something fresh with their latest album; the only issue is they wear out their welcome pretty quickly. The best comparison that can be made is the album ‘Rude Awakening’ by PRONG. It was catchy; it was groove based, and very different from anything they had done so far. But they spent too much time on the chugging riffs and the industrial beats all sounded the same. As a result, there were a lot of controversial opinions about how fans felt about the album, and it wasn’t until several years later that the band finally found a sound where they weren’t repeating themselves too much. Hopefully THE PROPHECY 23 will continue to hone their death thrash technique, but vary it up at the same time.


Tracklist:

01. Brutal Thrash Maniacs (4:17)
02. From the Basement To The Pit (4:01)
03. A Backpack Full Of Flashsnacks (3:02)
04. Immortal Attitude (4:14)
05. Mind Your Own Shit (2:36)
06. Damned Souls (3:05)
07. 23 Thrash B.C. (3:20)
08. Modification (4:05)
09. Human Decay (5:19)
10. Struggle to Survive (3:00)
11. Avoid Dull People (3:54)