Black Rivers Flow

While the debut of Kenosha darlings Lazarus A.D. was a fully venomous Thrash Metal attack with somewhat punky vocals, their glossy sophomore effort Black Rivers Flow is much tighter and more commercial in essence, with a greater reliance on vocal melodies (much of them clean during the refrains, which are quite infectious at times), and a heightened level of groove to the otherwise stellar guitar work.

Working under a production much like most of the world's modern metal acts, this vicious quintet keep things simple during stompers such as "The Strong Prevail" and "Casting Forward", two of the album's finer tracks, though there are a couple of near atrocities here with opener "American Dreams", a blatant attempt at a Lamb Of God/Trivium-esque anthem, and the title track which seizes its testicles Pantera-style before cracking open a chorus Metallica would think was contemporary and cool. The riffs on stand-out track "The Ultimate Sacrifice" have an extreme metal feel, which is one of the best things about Black Rivers Flow; the guitars take darker and more imposing avenues, with solos that are straight out of the Testament school.

Overall, this is more core-ish and therefore less atavistic than The Onslaught, meaning many will be turned off by such an obvious grab at the big time. Lazarus A.D. are a cool band who know what they're doing, but their latest effort is going to raise a few eyebrows for sure.