Band : The Scourger

Album title : Dark Initiation To Armageddon

Label : Stay Heavy/ Cyclone Empire

Distributor : Sure Shot Worx

Release date : 17/03/2008

Release : CD

Following the worldwide release of their 2006 debut full-length Blind Date With Violence through Cyclone Empire in October of that same year (review posted 27/10/2006), this Finnish Death/ Thrash band was well received by worldwide press, with German magazines Heavy and Rock Hard praising the album in their November issues. Webzine MetalRage conclusion was "...This band is out to destroy and conquer...". November and December 2006 saw the band touring Finland all over again, and getting into pre-production for a new album. January 2007 saw the release of the soundtrack to Finnish movie V2: Frozen Angel (on which the band was featured alongside such acts as Norther, Tarot, Thunderstone, and Amorphis). It also saw the band on a Scandinavian tour with Napalm Death, and drummer Seppo laying down tracks for the album (again to be produced by Aaro Seppovaara) at Seawolf Studios in Helsinki. Recording was continued on various moments during May and June, and first single Never Bury the Hatchet hit the shops on June 27 th (co-inciding with the Tuska Open Air 2007 festival)...entering at #9 it peaked at 5 some three weeks later. Meanwhile the cover artwork by Joe Petagno (the artist behind the Motörhead logo and album art, but also responsable for cover art on albums by Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Led Eeppelin, and others) was revealed, which hightened expectations for the upcoming album.

You'd think everything was goin' real well for the band, but bad luck was about to strike. Mixing engineer Pelle Saether from the Swedish Studio Underground had travelled to Finland to see The Scourger perform at the Tuska Open Air festival in late July, and a contact was laid down for him to mix the upcoming album. The band had real high expectations from this cooperation, because in the past Pelle had worked with such renowned artists as Carnal Forge, Madder Mortem, and Millencollin...and in the beginning everything seemed okay, as the first mixes for the low end of the album showed real enhancement for the drum sound the band was looking for. However, Autumn not only brought several delays but also a deteriorating sound quality, and eventually the final master wasn't even usable for pressing purposes (heheh: they say it themselves on their Myspace page that this will no doubt be a major topic in interviews). This set back the release in Finland from 7 November to 30 January, as the band was forced to pull everything straight again on home ground. With things straightened out, the band found time in during late 2007 to hit the road for another 15 gigs around Finland, playing a couple of new songs in front of enthousiastic audiences.

January 1st the band posted the news that their guitarist Timo Nyberg was leaving their fold. Not because of any disagreements, but simply because of the fact that he had other commitments he needed to take care of, and could not give the band his undivided attention. In his stead came Antti Wirman (formerly with Warmen and Craydawn), who'd stepped in as temporary replacement when guitarist Jani Luttinen had injured his hand in May 2006 and was unable to play for two months. In fact, he played at the rumoured Tuska festival in July (which was recorded for later use). After some rehearsals in January, the band supported Legion Of The Damned on their Finnish dates during February.

To get a preview of the album (if it hasn't hit your local records store yet) surf to myspace.com/thescourger, where you'll find a track off their mini-album, two off their debut full-length and, of course, "Never Bury The Hatchet" off the new one. Want more? Check out the discography section at thescourger.net, and listen to samples of 4 other songs (as well as of songs off the band's other releases). As gotten used to, the worldwide version of the album on Cyclone Empire contains bonus tracks. This time a live version of "Hatehead" (probably the version off the Never Bury The Hatchet single, and "Vicious Circle", which was previously exclusive to the 2005 Hatehead single.

I gave the first album a rating of 95/100, and I'm not changing that this time around. By the way, I can give you no info on whomever contributed the sparce keyboards to this album. Sparce except for during instrumental album intro "Lex Talionis", which is really nothing but keyboards...and drum!

95/100

Tony.