Here Waits Thy Doom (Standard Version) [CD]

To start off then, i am simply amazed there are no other reviews here for this fantastic album from 2009, undoubtably it could have slipped under the radar for many, but i find this as popular as any 3 inches of blood album. I have much respect for this band, a band who have lost many core members since their interception and of course road runner dropping them as their albums were not selling as they wanted, these unnecessary setbacks seem unjust with a band with so much talent and new to bring from the table, as certainly Fire up the blades and Advance and anguish are easily five star opuses on their own, it is great pleasure then to report this successor as also a great enough album to rightly join the ranks of such eliteness.

3 inches of blood trademark sound combine wild power metal tendencies, with full-on melodic thrash metal doses, the sound on "Here waits thy doom" appear loyal to these past glories, though perhaps this time the thrash metal sound being the most important driving factor here. There is undoubtedly a great deal of high speed guitar ripping on the album which instantly harks back to Slayer's "Reign in blood," however that is where similarities with that album end. The album kicks off with "Battles and brotherhood" a melodic, but-at-the-same time chaotic assortment of speed and hooks which instantly grabs your attention within the first 10 seconds. And is, in my opinion a great and successful album opener! Guitarists "Hagberg and clark" here really do give a commendable and impressive performance. Silent killer is an equally enjoyable track avoiding the speed-by-numbers trap, skillfully avoided by it's predecessors. Onwards the songs form an alliance which commemorates and honors the old school sound the band are famous for, which keeps the standard up! "Call of the hammer" is probably my favourite on the album along with "Execution tank" all containing 1st class headbanger riffs, which are likely to result in many replays.

It's great to see the band recognising the importance of diversity, the band also incorporate rather new song concepts to their usual fiery mix, in the form of 1234; a solid instrumental and a very good one too, acoustic atmospheric tunes are in my opinion very welcome on most metal CD's, and here it only serves to add a further positive note on what is a fantastic metal album. Musicianship is as we would expect is absolutely astonishing, everything from the solos to the riffs and core songwriting is top notch. This is what a metal album should look like, it's a really well thought-out effort and it shows! The dark front cover is fantastic and couldn't be anything closer to describing the richness of the music on the disc! Finally all this delightfulness is topped off with an excellent and high shrieking performance from the frontman Cam pipes, which coincidentally is quite possibly his best performance ever!

I would say this is their joint best album along with "Vanguish and Blades" and defiantly demonstrates themselves as a major force to be reckoned with, this band really deserves your attention. So go on do yourself a favour and find out why i think this is one of the best albums of 2009, Top notch metal...... 9.5/10 Mindblowing and highly recommended!!