THE RETALIATION PROCESS - review added 8th March 2010
Album Review: Downfall (2010)
For fans of: Death Metal... and alternative takes on thrash
The Retaliation Process, from Hamburg in Germany, was founded in 2008. Downfall, recorded, produced and mastered at Eikey Studio with Eike Freese at the helm, is the band's first album.
Featuring Christoph Madarasz on vocals, Jury Kowalczyk and Sascha Maskow on guitars, Michael Konecny on bass, and Andre Kummer on drums, the band are already signed to Silverwolf Productions - not bad for a first release.
The main body of the sound is cataclysmically heavy. Melodies fight for breath with artillery beats beneath a spiky blanket of guitar riffery. This is definitely a speaker-blowing mass of metallic noise if ever there was one. Christoph's vocals are perfectly respectable and, although he doesn't do anything spectacular to separate his death-cries from the crowd, what he does is more than up to the task. His 'normally' sung sections add an element of doom-laden interest too.
The tracks have an unfortunate tendency to blur into each other, but the base level of quality is high enough for it to not matter as much as it perhaps should. The ferocious opening of the album is spectacular - if the whole album had sounded that good it would have been a beast - but, as is, every song still manages to put something interesting on the table. Saying that, it would be easy to describe Downfall as a one dimensional release...but rather than one we'll perhaps settle on one and a half to one and three quarters.
Overall, this is a good sounding album that only suffers from a lack of stand out moments and memorable hooks to grab onto. The Retaliation Process is a decent band with plenty of talent and sh*t-loads of volume. They just need better material to show off what they can do.
Check out... The power of the album's opening.
Track List:
01. Uprising
02. Blindfolded
03. Four Seasons Of Self Mutilation
04. Bridge End... Vs.
05. ...Prozac (Instrumental)
06. Carnal Addiction
07. Down
08. On The Way Back
09. Written In Red Ink
10. Uncertain
Label: Silverwolf Productions
Artist's website(s): MySpace
