Reviewed by Mike Paradine

Band: Krankenstein
Title: Skull Krushers
Label: Broad Horizon Records
Release Date: 2012

Tracklist
1. Dirt Nap
2. Necktie
3. Withold
4. Fight For Your Life
5. By Force of Arms
6.  Theozoology
7. Animal
8. Call It Mike
9. To The Ground
10. Krush Kill Destroy
11. Iron Curtain
12. Insult to Injury
13. Invisable Death
14. Meet Thy Maker
15. Those Eyes
16. One Foot in the Grave
17. Unleashed
18. Sudden Death

When the editors here at Metal Shock Finland posted albums for review, I at first glanced over this band but with a name like KRANKENSTEIN, I immediately back tracked. I have heard the band throughout the years but never really paid attention to them as they reminded me, on most occasions, as sounding like Pantera. Nothing wrong with that at all except that I’m not big in that aggressive vocal and music style.

I receive the package from their record company, Broad Horizon, with nothing but the CD and letter of greetings. It would have been nice if a small press kit or bio of the band instead of researching the band on the internet and not being sure if my research information is correct. For instance on the back cover of this album, the listing for their second album is called “Krush, Kill, Destroy” while some sources have it titled under the band name, “Krankenstein”. Nothing major but I do like to have accurate info before I submit any writings.

The CD spans the bands career from the early days back in 1986 when vocalist Matt Roth and Josef Sunderhaus first recorded and released their first album “One Foot in the Grave”, up until their 4th album “Dirt Nap” which saw daylight in 2011. Piecing together certain works of each album is like creating a monster from different body parts and not knowing what kind of creature you’re going to wind up with in the end. But in this experiment, it works. It shows a very dynamic progression of early days which has a flavor of NWOBHM up to the last album that borrows from Pantera’s “Vulgar Display of Power” album.

The album starts off with 5 of the songs from their most recent release, “Dirt Nap” (2001). The title song “Dirt Nap” automatically gets your head banging in rhythm which has a good groove to it. Coming in at a full 23 seconds and totally unnecessary is “Neck Tie”. “Withhold” is my favorite from this section. Great riff, slowly marauding tempo and a great, wild guitar lead. The last two, “Fight for Your Life” and “By Force of arms”, both show a flavoring of the guitar hero’s of the 1980’s. Really cool licks meshed in with aggressive thrashing, a combination that took me by surprise but in a really good way.

Four songs from their “Theozoology” (1996) album now follows. The sound is close to their fore mentioned album with just the drums having a different sound, with the snare drum hits out in front. The song “Theozoology” is just the same old but the next number, “Animal” begins with Black Sabbath rhythms which Sunderhaus lays over a guitar riff stolen from early Metallica. These set of songs, though not as catchy as the first, hold their own. It has the same aggressiveness and power that fits seamlessly together. Matt Roth can not only scream full force while holding the note but he can sustain it, giving it a classic sound. So far an exciting and interesting album.

Now the portion comes from the album called “Krush, Kill, Destroy”. I love the fact that they took that line from an episode of the 1960’s TV series, Lost in Space. With 6 songs coming from this album, it is the most out of all of them. Well right off the bat, there is no power lost even though this album was released in 1993. The title song showcases Matt, spewing out some machine gun vocalization but the guitar solo, again, real stands out. Josef dive bombs his way into a cool melodic solo. Drums provide some interesting patterns for the guitarists to play over. Guitar sounds and vocal tones have not diminished at all. “Iron Curtain”, though showing some over done elements of thrash, does show off Matt’s higher pitched screams that would make any power metal singer proud. And Josef once again continues with cool guitar work. “Insult to Injury” is just a good solid, old school thrash song. “Invisible Death” conjures up the spirit of MetalChurch in vocal tone and song structure. The band shows their main influences on “Meet Thy Maker” which would bring the listener back to the glory days of thrash metal. Beginning the next song, I had to check that I had the right band. Melodic guitars straight out of Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” starts things rolling on “Those Eyes”. If any one of their songs had a commercial sound then this would be it. Referring to some guitar leads from early Maiden, the song becomes instantly likeable. I was a bit disappointed however on how it ended so suddenly. I would have liked to hear the song to go on a little further as I could foresee some interesting changes that could have been made.

Our final section comes from their first album, “One Foot in the Grave” (1989) and this is where you can hear a very different Krankenstein. Both musically and vocal style, they are very heavily influenced by NWOBHM with touches of early Metallica. The song “One Foot in the Grave” solidifies that explanation. “Unleashed” brings one back to early days of Judas Priest. A very fast paced tempo and structured song that one would hear on Priests “Sin After Sin” album. I completely love this! Their last song “Sudden Death” shows some flashes of coolness but is the weakest song out of the three. Vocally, it doesn’t grab ones attention as the previous two.

As a person who is not really into the brutal and aggressive Pantera style of music, I have to admit this was a very cool album to listen to. Now some parts of the music, I’ve heard a thousand times before by thousand of other bands in this genre. But isn’t that what defines that style? Though things may get clichéd at times, it is the reason we keep coming back to a certain style of music. As long as a band combines some fresh material, good guitar riffs and vocals with lyrics we can actually hear, it’s all good… as in the case with Krankenstein. I did have to scratch my head though and ask why they released this album as they did put out a greatest hits CD back in 2002 with identical songs. It contained 13 of the same tunes with 5 added new ones. I would have preferred 2 or 3 new songs but that’s a minor complaint here. They may not have the teams of publicists, managers and the budget that the majors have but it doesn’t make them any less enjoyable to listen to. I will say this a thousand times but underground bands are where the real music is. It may be harder to find them but there are some really good bands out there just like these guys. You just got to look.

8 out of 10

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