Lazarus A.D. - Black Rivers Flow

Published February 04 2011

*=Staff's pick	American Dreams The Ultimate Sacrifice The Strong Prevail Black Rivers Flow Casting Forward Light A City (Up In Smoke) Through Your Eyes Beneath The Waves Of Hatred

Genre	Thrash Metal	Jeff Paulick	Vocals
Tracks	9	Dan Gapen	Guitar
Runningtime	43 Min.	Alex Lackner	Guitar
Label	Metal Blade	Jeff Paulick	Bass
Release	01 February 2011	Ryan Shutler	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Chris Wisco
Similar artists	Testament

When The Onslaught appeared four years ago there was quite the number of moshers who unreservedly praised the thrash attack Lazarus A.D. delivered on that album. Playing thrash metal is mostly, a bit cheeky, about not changing the music as it was developed by Metallica, Slayer and Testament in the 80s without being totally nostalgic.

This fact Lazarus A.D. demonstrated beautifully on their debut, a record that reminded mostly of Testament, and had some very good songs on it. So when the sophomore album, Black Rivers Flow, was rumored to be in the pipeline, this sure made me very much looking forward to the album.

Therefore I quite bitterly conclude that Black Rivers Flow doesn't live up to my expectations. The level of variation within the music is higher than on The Onslaught, which is good because the weak spot on the debut was that the music was somewhat monotone.

But instead of bringing with them the good elements of that record - a furious drive and a feel of fuck you all - Lazarus A.D. has instead opted for playing much slower, and to play these more groove-oriented sections with an awful sense of being on autopilot. I can just shake my head over how lame this sounds. There are of course glimpses of light, but these are so few that I scarcely notice them.

Playingwise things are fine - Lazarus A.D's problem isn't that the guys don't know how to play, and not in the production which is very good, but in the weak songs that I, sadly, don't feel have the same drive as those on the debut. I sincerely hope that Lazarus A.D. rises as high as I know they can on the next album - but Black Rivers Flow doesn't rise above the bar of mediocrity for me.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	6	9	6	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Martin