BITTERNESS
“DEAD WORLD ORDER”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

8/10

Bitterness are a thrash metal band from Germany formed in 2001, releasing their debut album ‘Dawn Of Golden Blood’ in 2002, with their sophomore album ‘Sweet Suicide Solutions’ emerging in 2003. Following in the footsteps of German thrash metal icons Kreator and Destruction, Bitterness deliver a raw and aggressive style of full on and in your face thrash. The band went on to release a further four full length albums, two E.P.’s, 2013’s boxed set ’10 Years In T.H.R.A.S.H.’, and 2017’s compilation ‘Memories Of A Dying Past’. Bitterness have now unleashed their seventh studio album, ‘Dead World Order’ in 2020.

Nearing their twenty year anniversary, Bitterness still have plenty of energy and hunger burning inside, their new album a tumultuous rollercoaster ride of savagery that’ll be banging heads for a long time. ‘The Last Sunrise’ is a forty four second mellow guitar intro, that gives way to the blistering ‘A Bullet A Day’, and the rollercoaster is off and rolling… The aggressive guitars are complimented by an aggressive vocal performance – a kinda mix of Mille Petrozza and Tom Araya. ‘A Bullet A Day’ sits in the melodic thrash metal zone with bands such as Annihilator and Flotsam And Jetsam, albeit at the heavy end of the zone! The title song ‘Dead World Order’ heavy’s things up, foot stomping heavily at a mid tempo pace. The vocals snarl as the guitars carve out groove style riffs – the kind of riffs Pantera are well known for. And as ‘Dead World Order’ (the song) prowls on, there is a dramatic change of pace, with the song becoming a furious gallop. Get your heads moving sports fans, this is head banging stuff…

…which doesn’t relent either, with ‘Idiocracy’ hurtling forward like a greyhound out of the traps chasing that (pesky) rabbit… Mosh pits all around the world are gonna go mental for ‘Idiocracy’, with walls of death, circles of death and any other kind of movement of death forming. And after just three songs, Bitterness show their intent on delivering good old fashioned, head bangable and fierce thrash metal. ‘Let God Sort ‘Em Out’ keeps the pace high, the energy higher, and the head bang ability even fucking higher. The fastest song on the album so far, ‘Let God Sort ‘Em Out’ is a fast and furious thrash metal romp…

…with ‘Forward Into The Past’ picking up the baton and romping even harder. The mix of furious aggressive with groove, is highly infectious – you’ll either be head banging, foot stomping, head nodding, or foot tapping… All the while punching the air with a clenched fist in salute to a good thrash metal release. At over seven minutes in length ‘Blood Feud’ is the longest song on offer, and strolls in with a mellow swagger before blazing into life with the heaviest, grittiest and grooviest riff on the album. Infectious takes on a new meaning as ‘Blood Feud’ hits the sweet spot – hard! The addiction levels oozing from ‘Blood Feud’ is phenomenal, making this song a favourite of mine. ‘None More Black’ brings a more “heavy metal” feel to the album, yet retains the aggression and roughness that has run right through the album since it began. And with just one song left to go, the intense thrash metal assault has not relented for a single minute – this is a head banger of a release, and one helluva way to celebrate twenty years of thrashing. The instrumental ‘Darkest Times’ closes the album in a mellow mood, a kind of warm down from all the head banging and moshing you’ve done for the last forty minutes.

Overall, a thunderous avalanche of groove thrash, full of aggression and insanely high levels of energy. Mosh pits – are you ready?

TRACKLIST

The Last Sunrise (intro)
A Bullet A Day
Dead World Order
Idiocracy
Let God Sort ‘Em Out
Forward Into The Past
Blood Feud
None More Black
Darkest Times (instrumental)

https://www.bitterness.de/
https://www.facebook.com/bitternessthrash/

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