Assassin - Breaking The Silence

(CD, SPV/ Steemhammer, 2011)

The name ASSASSIN has its own chapter in the Thrash book mainly for the debut “The Upcoming Terror”. An album that won a lot of attention and in my opinion apart from the classic three Thrash titans of Germany, that album was in the top 5 of what we once called the classic German Thrash scene. It is one of the few albums with only super hits, so ferocious, fast and violent that when it was first released not many metalheads could stand it. Classic in all its aspects, without a doubt. The second effort was sympathetic but far away from the levels that the debut had settled, and that was their last one back then.

The band was reborn around 2004/ 2005 and released “The Club” album that was a huge disappointment. Probably the hardcore music touch that replaced the old good Thrash mayhem and the bad sound production made the band to get lost into oblivion. So, here we have a good return, mostly into the Thrash realms; we can call it as the real ASSASSIN revival. Without being something fantastic, “Breaking The Silence” can win you specially if you were an old fan of the band. And there some good reasons for that.

First of all, at least three songs here are ideal for bloody headbanging. These are the first self-titled with the fast and furious riffing, the exhausting “Raise In The Dark” and “Destroy The State” that comes with a really nice intro although the ending of the song is a little bit destructive. “No Fear” and “Real Friends” that was previously released in “The Club” appear here too, but they are ten thousand times better mainly cause the production is very good, made by the master Harris Johns. That gives a lot of bonus to their new album; the sound brings something from the past that I liked a lot.

What is not working that good is the kind of monotonous approach of the band. Sometimes this will become a little boring. It seems that you hear the same thing each time and some nice parts inside like the bridge of “Turf War” get lost. That does not apply for all tracks but in general “Judas”, “Turf War”, “No Fear” of “Strike Back” are cool but nothing that I will remember for a long time.

Despite the above what is left after the end of the album is a good vibe I think. Micha is here, and together with Scholli can create razor riffs ideal for the savage voice of Gonnella. Even the cover of “I Like Cola” from OUTO (is there anyone out there remembering them?) makes “Breaking The Silence” worth checking. Plus is more that obvious that ASSASSIN still can deliver the goods regarding Thrash. They still have it. Simply as that.

7/10

Links:

www.Assassin-Online.De
www.MySpace.Com/AssassinThrashMetal

Tracklist:

01. Breaking The Silence
02. Raise In The Dark
03. Judas
04. Turf War
05. Destroy The State
06. No Fear
07. Kill Or Be Killed
08. Real Friends
09. Strike Back
10. I Like Cola

Lineup:

Robert Gonnella - Vocals
Jorgen ‘Scholli’ Scholz - Guitars
Michael ‘Micha’ Hoffman - Guitars
Bjorn Sondermann - Drums
Joachim Kremer - Bass

Written by Yiannis Doukas Sunday, 10 April 2011 21:41