From the blade edge of the spearhead that is India’s Kerala province the trio of Amorphia has returned with their second album, Merciless Strike released in February 2020. They have torn off the cruise control button on this hell ride as they screech maddeningly through the album to bring you THRASH metal!
Their idea right from the start is to get set the tempo and never let it go. The drummer must have taken some energy drink intravenously and then just let loose on the drum kit that would’ve gone home after practice and taken several aspirins to stem the pain of the beating. Often the drums are used as black paint on walls as they provide the harsh background needed to carry the carry guitars but amongst it all, there is some art.
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In ‘Martian Law’ there is a great change of rhythm in parts where drums provide fills that support the rhythm guitar and provides tantalising absences to create a textured song. ‘Judgement Day’ displays drum prowess with drums filling in around and supporting the song. The intro to ‘Blazing glares’ is an interesting one with the sound of perhaps a rubber pipe being hit that makes a ‘whoop’ sound.
The album artwork invokes messages of power-hungry people hell-bent on destroying the planet for everyone. Perhaps there is a collision with a controlling higher power as you see the clouds break apart and an ironic beam of light taking them in uncomfortable fashions towards something or somewhere unknown. The earth is then left toxic and desolate in the control of madmen who look to populate the planet with genetically modified subservient mutants.
I feel the album has improved since the last one with more complexity in the way the songs have been arranged. The guitar is still the main focus with great riff speed but is now interluded with rhythm sections that define the songs more.
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Bass guitar provides the tail of the shark but it’s mostly the guitar teeth you see. Solos present themselves here and there with fierce energy squealing this way and that. All of them are filled with raw energy and almost reckless abandon as if it were a car was veering dangerously around some mountainous roads using the metal cliff barriers to keep it on track.
Matching the album cover their lyrics focus mainly on the brutality of the power-hungry people that control us caring very little for the planet in the process. As in Merciless Strike ‘Death laughs at our cries’ and ‘Cities covered with carpets of bodies, waiting for salvation. So the theme continues that we are under the control of those who succumb to their evil urges and we will all perish under fire. In Blazing Glares ‘Satan’s force hunts you down, natures justified way’. Humankind has a way perhaps of being controlled by supernatural forces (if that’s your jam) that could alter our mental state. Ironically the chaos of mosh pit induced by the aggression of their music is one of the safest and best places to be. Vocals manage to convey the aggression of everything mentioned with clever uses of delay at times.
Release Year: 2020
Label: Awakening Records
Category: Album
Country: India
Reviewed by Byron Lotz
