POLTERGEIST
“FEATHER OF TRUTH”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Poltergeist are a thrash metal band from Switzerland formed in 1985, releasing a couple of demo’s before their debut album ‘Depression’ emerged in 1989. Releasing two more albums in the space of three years – ‘Behind My Mask’ (1991) and ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ (1993), the band established themselves as a new force in the thrash metal genre, touring with legends Destruction, Kreator, Sodom and Tankard. By the end of 1993 however, Poltergeist sadly split up, and it was ten long years before various band members got back together, discussed the “old days” and posted some photos across social media. The reaction from fans around the world was phenomenal – and Poltergeist was reborn, releasing their fourth album ‘Back To Haunt’ in 2016. And three decades after their debut album emerged, Poltergeist are all set to unleash their fifth album ‘Feather Of Truth’, due for release in summer 2020.

Fashioning an aggressive thrash metal sound with the pace of power metal, ‘Feather Of Truth’ is a searing sonic assault of sheer ferocity…and all delivered at a speed that is gonna wreck necks…A&E departments are gonna be fucking busy! ‘Feather Of Truth’ is a ten song thunderstorm that scorches into life with the almighty ‘Time At Hand’. Fast, furious and aggressive, ‘Time At Hand’ is high velocity thrash, with a striking melodic streak right through its heart. Poltergeist are gonna set the worldwide thrash metal scene ablaze with this release – it’s an incredible album that travels at lightning pace, wrecking necks of whomever it passes by. ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Rocking’ is not, and I stress is not, related in any way to the Elton John classic ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ – and boy oh boy what a relief that is I can tell you. The blistering pace set by ‘Time At Hand’ doesn’t relent one iota, for ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Rocking’ fairly blitzes past at an astonishing rate. The head bang ability of this album is right off the scale, with the title song ‘Feather Of Truth’ dabbing the brakes just a little. Much more a mid to high paced gallop, ‘Feather Of Truth’ (the song) takes on a bit of a darker and menacing vibe, but loses nothing of the raw aggression displayed by the opening double salvo.

Ten songs across forty seven furious minutes continues with the scorching hot ‘The Attention Trap’. Blazing a sizzling trail of fire, ‘The Attention Trap’ blisters the Earth it races over, leaving only smouldering ash behind. Poltergeist may be delivering thrash metal music, but the vocals are fairly clean and clear, more akin to the power metal or traditional heavy metal style. There is no raspy, throaty or snarling vocals you would normally associate with this style of ferociously aggressive metal. It just means Poltergeist are appealing to a number of genres, and a wide ranging audience. ‘Phantom Army’ returns the earlier mid to high paced style, for the opening minute at least, before a change of pace sees ‘Phantom Army’ accelerate at an incredible rate to become a super fast head banger. ‘The Gods Of The Seven Rays’ plants one foot in the melodic power metal genre as it swaggers forth. Traditional heavy metal as well as thrash, both play a supporting role as ‘The Gods Of The Seven Rays’ majestically strides tall and very proud.

Electrifying pace makes an emphatic return to the album with ‘The Culling’, which proceeds to dish out a savage pummelling. Retaining that melodic streak, ‘The Culling’ is fast and furious yet infectious and catchy. Poltergeist really do know how to please! ‘Megalomaniac’ threatens to smash the world land speed record, setting a breath taking pace, as it scampers furiously past. The chorus is gonna have fans everywhere screaming “megalomaniac” at the tops of their lungs, and live in concert, the crowd participation is gonna be huge. The guitar sound of ‘Ambush’ is taken straight from the iconic NWOBHM evolution, yet the speed at which ‘Ambush’ is delivered, is from the standpoint of the speed metal genre. ‘Ambush’ is fierce, and an almighty cacophony of metal to get the blood flowing and adrenaline pumping. So it’s a real shame that the final song is just a few moments away – but you know what to do, simply press the replay button and go again… The curtain is brought down on a cracking album by the furious, and aggression laden ‘Thin Blue Line’. This final hurrah ends the album as it began – in a blaze of high velocity thrash.

Overall, incredible pace and amazing power, Poltergeist deliver a heavy hitting album of thrash come power metal.

TRACKLIST

Time At Hand
Saturday Night’s Alright For Rocking
Feather Of Truth
The Attention Trip
Phantom Army
The Gods Of The Seven Rays
The Culling
Megalomaniac
Ambush
Thin Blue Line

https://poltergeistmetal.com/
https://www.facebook.com/poltergeist.official

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