Perzonal War
Inside the New Time Chaoz

Where does the time go? That is perhaps a question these guys ask themselves considering that they are already celebrating 20 years since their formation in 1996. They do so by taking some songs from the album The Inside (their debut from 1998) and the following album Newtimechaos (released in 2000) and reworking them with the current line up. But it is not just the current line up that has been part of this rerecording, names from the past also show up doing some parts meaning that before work on the follow up to The Last Sunset begins next year there will be a big party to celebrate the first 20 years. And we get to hear songs from albums not released outside Germany and that have been sold out for a long time.

Thrash metal, clearly inspired by bands like Metallica and that is somewhat more obvious on this album than it has been on their latest one. They play songs with excellent production, with great sound, vocals, performances but I cannot help considering this more of an album for the fans than for a wider audience. It feels less exciting than the few albums they have released before this one and perhaps most of the songs are of a slightly lower calibre than what they have done lately. That is probably natural and shows their progression since the time when they were starting out in the late nineties.

But even though it isn’t quite up to the level of The Last Sunset or Captive Breeding it really starts in an excellent way, The Inside is a great track – I just love those nice guitar lines in the chorus, that is brilliance. After that we get more good tracks but also tracks that don’t quite stand out for me which is why I think this is an album more targeted to the fans, the long time followers of this band than it is targeting a more wide audience, their latest works are better for that. But it is difficult not to go back just once more to that great opening track, a track that one can listen to many times over.

I don’t really think I need to write more than that I recommend it for all the fans of this band, if you like thrash metal you will find this one great but if you are just looking for a great Perzonal War album they have done better things in the recent past. And with that: Cheers, and lets hope for twenty more years of wonderful music.

HHHHHHH