Band: Forgery
Title: Harbouring Hate
Label: Candlelight Records
Distribution: PHD – Plastic Head Distribution.
Release date: 09/11/2009
Review: CD

The Norwegian Thrash formation Forgery originally started in 1990, but after a couple of demo tapes the band faded away in silence. In 2002 Forgery reformed and a few years later, in 2006, the first full length, Core, was released. This made them one of the most important Thrash bands from Norway, but this newest effort will make them famous all over the world.

Harbouring Hate goes much further than Core. All right, the band still brings extreme Thrash Metal, but there’s a sublime evolution away from a certain Bay Area-sound towards a universal one. This sound gets close to the Death Metal sound from most Scandinavian (especially Norwegian) bands, but the massive tracks also incorporate ingeniously composed technical elements and timeless melodies. The tracks are groovy and varying in tempo and structure. It goes way beyond ‘random’ Thrash, partly thanks to a few unique riffs and agreeable tempo-changes, yet without being over-experimental or mathematically progressive or avant-garde. Besides, the production is concrete-hard, the lyrics uncompromising, the atmosphere impressive.

Fact: drummer Jan Roger Halvorsen already worked with bands as Old Man’s Child, Rotting Christ, Mandylion, 54, Zensor or Aphelion. Duration: 52:29 minutes.

80/100

Ivan Tibos.