MEZZROW
“Summon Thy Demons”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Mezzrow are a thrash metal band from Sweden forming in 1987 at the height of the worldwide thrash metal explosion. The band are heavily inspired by the Bay Area thrash movement, with bands such as Exodus and Testament just two of the Swedes major influences – Mezzrow recording a couple of demo’s followed by their debut album ‘Then Came The Killing’ (1989). Besieged by line-up changes, Mezzrow disbanded in 1993, reforming thirty years later and releasing sophomore album ‘Summon Thy Demons’ in 2023…

…featuring ten songs over a fast and furious fifty minutes! The influence of the Bay Area can still be heard in the bands sound – the legendary movement from the eighties an inspiration to so many bands! Definitely to Mezzrow, who shun their country’s more famous reputation for producing heavy metal, hard rock and power metal bands, to deliver the more aggressive style of thrash! And what a fantastic job they do too – ‘Summon Thy Demons’ exploding into life with ‘King Of The Infinite Void’. Aggressive and very fast paced, Mezzrow light the touch paper and scorch the earth to leave only desolation in their wake!

With the album immediately at full throttle, the band storm on with ‘Through The Eyes Of The Ancient Gods’, toeing the melodic thrash metal line of bands such as Death Angel and Flotsam And Jetsam. Pummelling the airways with a sonic assault of aggression and brutality, Mezzrow are a devastating force of nature, the head bang ability of ‘Through The Eyes Of The Ancient Gods’ off the fucking charts! What a brilliant opening one-two – with the title song ‘Summon Thy Demons’ making it a brilliant opening one-two-three! The pace and power more energetic now than when the album began! Bloody incredible! ‘Summon Thy Demons’ (the song) is a phenomenally heavy mid tempo thunderstorm, shaking the ground and crumbling walls as it strides on by. And the guitar tone – simply gorgeous. Electrifying pace bursts forth with the blazing speed of ‘What Is Dead May Never Die’ challenging light to a race. For the speed of light is very fast – 186,000 miles per second – Mezzrow doing their utmost to beat it! And I reckon they have a chance!

The intensity of the album has been relentless, the band showing no signs of letting it slip, continuing to hammer the senses with vicious intent, as ‘De Mysteriis Immortui’ comes alive with a gorgeous guitar riff. The pace of the previous song has now increased two-fold, Mezzrow ignoring speed limits and stop signs to deliver a breath taking barrage of high velocity thrash. And with a fondness for slightly longer song titles than I am used to for this genre, the band motor on with the (short) atmospheric intro’d ‘Beneath The Sea Of Silence’, proceeding to deliver a skull crushing, bone snapping assault of terrifying thrash! The band have aggression in abundance, letting loose with a total disregard for being nice – but isn’t that what thrash metal’s all about? Fast and aggressive music to let off steam to, allowing the singer to scream, shout and holler so you don’t have to! Hell yeah it is! And with the Bay Area influence very much on show, Mezzrow romp on with ‘On Earth As In Hell’ – a barnstorming barrage of old school thrash very much in the vein of early Testament. More specifically the bands ‘Souls Of Black’ era.

And what the…! Mellow guitars and a sudden loss of all pace and power – Mezzrow breath life into ‘Blackness Fell Upon The World’ in the most serene way possible, letting loose with a glorious “foot on the monitor” styled traditional metal stomp. ‘Blackness Fell Upon The World’ very much straddling the thrash and heavy metal genres, attracting both thrashers and metallers into the bands soundscape. A cracking genre hopping offering, the band immediately return to blistering thrash metal for ‘Dark Spirit Rising’, aggression and brutality reigning supreme. And with the Bay Area sound rising high into the air, fans of old school thrash are gonna love this – after all, Mezzrow were born during the eighties when the Bay Area shaped the sound of thrash metal. Bringing the album to a sensational end, is the fastest song on the album ‘The End Of Everything’ – blazing a fiery trail of smoke and flames as it hurtles across the land! The speed of ‘The End Of Everything’ outstrips every other song on offer, leaving the listener gob smacked by the severity of the albums final hurrah.

Overall, an aggression fuelled barrage of terrific thrash metal, delivered at pace with tonnes of head bang ability.

TRACKLIST

King Of The Infinite Void
Through The Eyes Of The Ancient Gods
Summon Thy Demons
What Is Dead May Never Die
De Mysteriis Immortui
Beneath The Sea Of Silence
On Earth As In Hell
Blackness Fell Upon The World
Dark Spirit Rising
The End Of Everything

http://www.mezzrow.black/
https://www.facebook.com/mezzrowsweden/

This review is the property of Iron Mathew, Frenzy Fire, Metal-Roos, and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have both of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities

---