CRITICAL DEFIANCE
“The Search Won’t Fall…”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Critical Defiance are a thrash metal band from Chile formed in 2010 releasing three albums to date – ‘Misconception’ (2019), ‘No Life Forms’ (2022) and ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’ (2024).

The five-piece outfit from South America delivered bone breaking skull crushing aggression on their first two albums, and with third album ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’, Critical Defiance up the ante to slaughter the airways with eleven all out thrashers across a ferocious forty four minutes! The band are in devastating form right from the off, opening the album with the seven and a half minutes plus title song ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’. Seven and a half minutes – fucking long for an album opener! But it works! Very well – the band on fire as ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’ (the song) bursts into life after a short mellow, anticipative passage! Critical Defiance are at full throttle here, bludgeoning listeners with raw brutally and a vicious vocal performance that’s gonna tear the airways to shreds! A stunning display of full on savagery, ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’ (the album) storms on with another long song – the six minute plus ‘Long Distance (The What’s To Come)’. Roaring by at incredible speed, ‘Long Distance (The What’s To Come)’ is ferocity unleashed, the band sending every mosh pit around the world into fucking overdrive!

The opening brace – spanning fourteen furious minutes – has been a devastating double of blistering speed and all out aggression, Critical Defiance not slowing down for anything or anyone, powering on with increased speed courtesy of ‘Helpless World’. Delivered at a pace that’s actually quicker than either of the two previous songs, the thrash metal outfit from Villa Alemana scorch the earth with frightening ferocity! What a triple thrash metal treat, ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’ (the album) marching furiously on with ’44 Minds’. I just can’t emphasise enough the frenetic pace at which Critical Defiance are delivering their new album, although “faster than the speed of light” may be the most appropriate descriptor right now! And like I mentioned earlier, the bands first two albums were loaded to the hilt with bone breaking skull crushing aggression – their third taking aggression to a whole new level! So prepare for a battering the like of which you’ve never had before, ‘The Blind Divine’ a one minute mellow instrumental creating an air of unbearable tension…

…for ‘Absolut’ to come rampaging forth like a herd of stampeding elephants! And you wouldn’t wanna be stood in front of them for fear of being trampled to death – much like what’s gonna happen if you stand in front of Critical Defiance when they’re in this mood! The aggression, menace and ferocity oozing from the album is aggressive, menacing and ferocious – ‘All The Powers’ a forty five second burst of super sonic speed! Reminds me a lot of Nuclear Assault that does – ‘The Search Won’t Fall…’ (the album) storming on with another short speedy burst, this time in the shape of ‘Full Paranoia’. Lasting only a minute and twenty five seconds, ‘Full Paranoia’ is an instrumental for the first minute with vocals kicking in right at the end.

Critical Defiance branch out into the realm of melodic heavy metal with the two and a half minute instrumental ‘Margarita’ – setting a mellow, very calm atmosphere! You know the one? It’s the one that claims to be the “calm before the storm” – the storm delayed by this third instrumental! This one however, toes the thrash metal line, ‘Bulldog’ a weighty affair that creates a tension fuelled atmosphere as it charges towards the final song – the self titled ‘Critical Defiance’. Clocking in at a monolithic nine and a half minutes in length, ‘Critical Defiance’ is an amalgamation of everything the band have in their arsenal – from all out speed to aggression to menace and to ferocity! So prepare for one more skull crushing bone breaking barrage of brutality from the South American thrashers – good luck surviving this one!

Overall, a furiously fast paced rampage from Critical Defiance, delivering bold, brash highly head bang-able thrash.

TRACKLIST

The Search Won’t Fall
Long Distance (The What’s To Come)
Helpless World
44 Minds
The Blind Divine
Absolut
All The Powers
Full Paranoia
Margarita
Bulldog
Critical Defiance

https://criticaldefiance.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/criticaldefiance

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