Band: Unholy
Title: New Life Behind Closed Eyes
Label: Prosthetic Records
Distribution: Prosthetic Records
Release date: Summer 2009
Review: CD

The American band Unholy did release two studio recordings before, Awaken The Sleep (MCD 2006; Closed Casket Activities) and the full length Blood Of The Medusa (Lambgoat Records, 2007). The formation also performed with respected bands as Soilent Green, The Acacia Strain, Meshuggah, God Forbid and many others. Earlier this year, Unholy recorded the second full length, called New Life Behind Closed Eyes (duration: thirty six minutes), which goes on in the vein of both former recordings, both musically and lyrically. The latter still deal with the waste called ‘humanity’, and the sick worlds we do live in right now, and which we will join after Death. A fatalistic view, yet maybe not that far away from the absolute truth, brought with an introspective as well as dark-poetic elegance…
Anyway, the ten tracks, varying from two to five minutes, still stand for a well-thought technical form of modern Thrash Metal with lots of tempo-changes and breaks, some experimental hooks, elements from Death Metal, as well as an aggressive and powerful, brutal sound. The twisted mixture of fast Thrash à la Slayer and Abysmal Dawn, up-tempo Bay Area-elements (think heavier Testament), energetic Swedish-oriented melodies (Entombed, In Flames), a Crowbar-groove, some Sabbath-ish (Doom) riffs, a few somewhat eccentric Carcass-inspired constructions, and additional elements from the (American) Thrashcore / Metalcore / Deathcore-scene, it has been professionally transformed into a non-renewing yet refreshing successor of Blood Of The Medusa. New Life … is the band’s most mature recording to date.

80/100

Ivan Tibos.