Artist: Atonement
Country: Sweden
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Format: LP / CD
Year: 2023
With an album cover like that of ‘Sadistic Invaders’ you sort of know what you’re going to get. Well at least, a band like Deathhammer pops into my mind, and it wouldn’t be too far off to mention those Norwegians when describing the music of Atonement. The Swedish Atonement to be exact, as there are a few bands around with the same name. Who cares about originality anyway, and the band must have thought the same when recording the material on their debut. Not in the least because they do not hide their Black / Thrash Metal influences: Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Poison, Sepultura, Slayer and Bathory blended into something that sounds quite a bit like bands such as the madmen from Japan, Abigail. The band further extends that stick-with-what’s-good attitude by presenting their ten tracks in a rather minimal variation, maximum intensity formula. Sharp riffing with whammy solos, old school drum patterns and barking blackened vocals, the pace is generally ripping with only a minimal amount of groovy breaks such as in ‘Await the Command’ breaking the onslaught. Even the midtempo start to ‘Unholy Sorcery’, the only song over five minutes, is pure deceit as in no time we have hit the throttle and return at a to the point attitude and deadly speed towards the end, ready to press repeat.
With Dying Victims Productions backing the band up by releasing the album on LP and CD, you just know it has to be good. Old school Thrash and Black Metal worship comes together on ‘Sadistic Invaders’, a record bound to please those that love that typical 80’s violence. Screw originality and variety, the debut of the Swedish Atonement is entertaining as hell!
