Scenteria – “Art of Aggression”
Armed with big, fat, thrash, Slayeresque guitars, Scenteria sounds pretty cool. The sound is interesting because the Swedish, tuned-down guitars have a massive, fat feel to them. Yes, they are Swedish, duh. The vocals are growled, but do not stand out as a sore point, instead they mesh with the overall sound. The whole band is a big, massive rhythm section! In addition, I like this because the thrash does not sound boring, like most thrash. This is not lame thrash like Overkill or Flotsam and Jetsam or something mediocre like that. There’s more: they have melody, but—and this is important—they keep the melodies subtle, which works really well because they add to the mood, as opposed to making you think that they want to add power metal to the mix. The album has gotten better with more listens, for sure. However, there’s a limit to how better it gets. I have probably heard this more than ten times now and I feel like 1) that’s enough for a while and 2) that it’s good, but it’s not truly great or awesome and 3) that I have hit a limit as to how excited I will get. That’s ok, though. Every debut can’t be “Kill’em All” or “Scream Bloody Gore”, right?