City of Kings

"City of Kings" certainly ranks among the most inconsistent albums I've heard. Simply put, you have here a mix of very good thrashers, all surrounded by average to below-average songs that are rather tame, when not completely bland and boring.

This could be considered a good thrash album if Verismo had been able to deliver an album full of the better stuff here, rather than about 40-50% of boring fillers. The thrash material is reminiscent of mid to late 80s Metallica and Testament, kind of the bastard child of the two, especially with the singer sounding like a cross of Hetfield and Billy at times. The material isn't as good as what the aforementioned bands produced back in those days, but a few of the songs aren't that far off in terms of quality. Add to this a little modern edge that generally doesn't take too much away.

The more tame material borders more on a "modern" heavy metal sound, and more often in a bad way, unfortunately. The vocals frequently end up sounding a bit like 90s "metal", when some metal bands were trying to ride the grunge bandwagon without fully going there. But that's not the problem; It's just that these songs are bland and boring and really break the momentum set by the thrashy songs.

There is certainly a lot of potential on display on this album, and should Verismo focus on their thrash sound more and drop the watered-down stuff, they could come up with a real winner the next time around. But "City of Kings" is something one should only get from the bargain bin...