SUICIDAL ANGELS
“Profane Prayer”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Suicidal Angels are a thrash metal band from Greece founded in 2001 by vocalist/guitarist Nick Melissourgos, the band releasing eight albums to date, delivering a style of thrash similar to the brutality and aggression of the Teutonic Four (Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and Tankard for anyone who still doesn’t know who the Teutonic Four are). The bands eighth album ‘Profane Prayer’ was released in 2024…

…featuring nine songs across fifty fierce minutes! Growing in stature and maturity album by album Suicidal Angels, before they became a headline act somewhere around 2014, supported such luminaries as Rotting Christ, Onslaught, Kreator and Overkill, opening for the Big 4 (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax) at the 2010 Sonisphere Festival in Greece – in the bands home town of Athens no less! The band have toured relentlessly – Thrashfest Tour 2010 with Kreator, Exodus and Death Angel, Full Of Hate Tour 2012 with Cannibal Corpse and Behemoth, Conquering Europe Tour 2014 (as headliners), MTV Headbangers Ball European Tour 2018 with Exodus, Death Angel and Sodom, and performed at some of the worlds biggest metal festivals, Brutal Assault, Graspop Metal, and Wacken to name just a few! And that’s not all – in support of the new album, the band will hit the road on the Profanation Over Europe Tour with Fusion Bomb and Crimson Fire, along with the Profanation Over UK Tour with Dust Bolt. Talk about hard work and dedication!

The band have done it all, and with ‘Profane Prayer’, Suicidal Angels proceed to lacerate the sky with an all out thrash metal attack fuelled by savage aggression – album opener ‘When The Lions Die’ a thundering cacophony of heavy artillery with incendiary devices exploding left, right and fucking centre! The incredible energy driving ‘When The Lions Die’ is more than what’s needed to power the National Grid – the Greek thrashers setting a searing pace, the album roaring on with the punk edged ‘Crypts Of Madness’. The pedal is well and truly pressed to the metal here, Suicidal Angels creating a head bang ability that every metalhead around the world is gonna fully embrace – boy there’s gonna be some sore necks in the morning! But it’s not worth worrying about right now, for the album storms on with the electrifying pace of ‘Purified By Fire’ – the fastest song heard so far! I say so far, ’cause we’re only a third of the way through, I’m sure there’s gonna some faster songs ahead, but right here right now, ‘Purified By Fire’ revels in the knowledge it has the honour of “fastest” hanging round its neck like an Olympic gold medal!

The intensity of ‘Profane Prayer’ since it began has been all consuming, capturing the attention of every listener around the world and not letting go – ‘Deathstalker’ entering the fray on the crest of a mellow wave, gradually getting heavier and heavier until BOOM! A mighty foot stomp shudders the ground, demolishing walls and reducing buildings to rubble to leave only desolation in it’s wake – the band oozing a level of menace not heard previously. And as ‘Deathstalker’ strides on, Suicidal Angels change gear and tempo, effortlessly switching from a foot stomp to the iconic “foot on the monitor” gallop of traditional heavy metal – ‘Deathstalker’ one of those genre hopping, boundary breaking songs that’s attractive to a very diverse audience. An audience that’s not stopped listening since the album began, the title song ‘Profane Prayer’ anything but a prayer! The band land us back firmly and squarely in thrash metal territory, bludgeoning the senses with an all out onslaught of aggression, brutality and savagery – ‘Profane Prayer’ (the song) a frantically paced head banger of a tune! The mosh pits are gonna go fucking wild for this one, every single metalhead everywhere rocking their head back and forth at an extreme rate of knots! Mixing traditional heavy metal elements with their thrash metal roots, ‘The Return Of The Reaper’ maintains the bands incredible wide ranging soundscape, thrashers and metallers all head banging together as one, to a band very much at the top of their game.

And it’s no surprise either that the band’s at the top of their game when you consider how much output Suicidal Angels have delivered in a relatively short career. Not to mention the constant touring too – it’s fine tuned the Greek four piece into a well oiled and reliable thrash metal machine! A machine that slides into top gear for the blistering ‘Guard Of The Insane’ – the band scorching the earth with a red hot rampage! High velocity and full throttle merge together as ‘Guard Of The Insane’ roars louder than every thing heard so far – the band firing on all cylinders to deliver an insane amount of head bang ability! Head bang ability that doubles for the even quicker ‘Virtues Of Destruction’ – clocking in at less than three minutes in length! The shortest song on offer by the proverbial country mile, ‘Virtues Of Destruction’ is insanely fast, more than making up for its shortness with phenomenal ferocity and aggression. And from the shortest to the longest song on offer, ‘The Fire Paths Of Fate’ chiming in at a colossal nine and a half minutes long – ending the album with a stunning array of styles! Opening with a mellow Middle Eastern sounding first minute and a half, the band build the tension through to a mighty foot stomp heavy enough to knock planet Earth of its fucking axis! The level of menace here is frightening, Suicidal Angels increasing the pace and power, planting their feet firmly on the monitor one last time to emanate the glorious sound of traditional heavy metal.

Overall, a ferocious full throttle thrash metal attack, ‘Profane Prayer’ is fast, aggressive, and head bang-able to the max.

TRACKLIST

When The Lions Die
Crypts Of Madness
Purified By Fire
Deathstalker
Profane Prayer
The Return Of The Reaper
Guard Of The Insane
Virtues Of Destruction
The Fire Paths Of Fate

https://suicidalangels.net/
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