The band from Netherlands started as Occult back in 1992. The old fans will remember two things about them: a)They were part of the black / thrash movement and b)They had this awful (in all ways) female vocalist Rachel that did (in) Sinister too! Those that remember the cancelled show in club Rodon due to the coxaky virus, will also remember the free show the next day in club An with Sinister (and not the headliners Hypocrisy) and Rachel as their frontwoman; or maybe they’d rather forget? Her seat behind the microphone was taken by Maurice Swinkels who’s also fronting the new named group that has replaced only its bass guitarist.

In their two previous works Legion Of The Damned offered plenty of thrash in the likes of ’80s Destruction –not only- with somewhat black metal vocals, continuous double – bass drumming and a ’90s death metal sound; that’s what’s in here, too. We heard all of these again this year when they decided to do “Elegy Of The Weak” (they had released as Occult) under the name “Feel The Blade”. The only difference with Occult’s sound was the heavier and not so high-tuned sound. Even the lyrical themes remained the same. So the change in name and style –death / thrash instead of black / thrash was more for commercial reasons.

Everything in “Cult Of The Dead” is correct. The band sounds tight since they’ve been together for some years. However, after listening to the album for 5 times, there wasn’t one single, interesting moment. Not one strong riff, all of them sound heard a thousand times before. Yes, they are aggressive, heavy but meaningless. They’ve nothing to say to experienced listeners. You don’t get excited or feel the energy they want to surpass. They follow many stereotypes like in the vocal section. Rachel used to get the blame for using pitch shifters but Maurice offers a plain, dry performance with not one single difference during the whole duration.

Sometime I had read a review that “albums like “A Vision Of Misery” by Sadus are responsible for the decay of thrash metal in the early ’90s”! Despite my disagreement on this statement, I feel the same about “Cult Of The Dead” for the end of this decade. It’s only thrash in paper…like the last Greek football championship…