The last album by Rebel's Mother came to me packaged with several surprises. The band then captioned themselves as "Progressive Metal" and in turn pounded out some killer thrash. What really shocked me was the first vocal part was a deep guttural death growl. All in all their first album The Dark Unknown was a fair project that showed great potential.
Rebel's Mother is back, and they are stretching to reach that potential with their new album Sanctify. This go around the band seems to be embracing the term metal. Not only does their website proclaim this but the cover art along with the redesigned band logo just simply scream METAL (not to mention the new e-mail address of [email protected]). All this taken into account, they do however still remain close to their original sound. I'd call them overall a thrash/groove band. The guitars crunch with the best of them, but still manage up some very meaty speed parts as well. I also feel that they actually do seem a bit MORE progressive on this album at times than they ever did on The Dark Unknown, creating some very dark and brooding songs.
The vocalist teases me again with some rumbling growls here and there but he never takes them into the songs, only using them as highlights. The vocals for the most part are gravelly thrash vocals ala Pantera. They do a lot of changing up, including some nice cleaner singing moments just when the songs needed it.
Lyrics are just as they were before, solid God fearing lyrics that proclaim His Holy name. I love the integrity of this band to not back down one moment in their lyrics.
More and more this style of metal is resurfacing, and I love that a lot. Production is the only area that seems lacking to me on this album. It's not terrible by any means, but it just sounds like it could be cleaned up some. This album marks a huge step forward by a band that can hang with the best of them. Again for fans of thrash metal with a progressive flair, not overly progressive but just enough to keep you guessing!
7.5/10
Other coverage for this album
HM Magazine #86Reviewed by Doug Van PeltThese guys have shown much improvement with Sanctify (in both sound and their killer album cover art) since their last release. While at times churning out almost biker rock chunky riffs, they shrill it up Megadeth-style, double-bass rumble it speed metal style, add an impressive-enough solo, or gang vocal passionately enough to believe 'em. Not a knockout unit yet, but they're showing so much…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by SORGThis 3 piece band from California has released another no holds barred metal album. There is evidence of influences from thrash masters such as Testament and Tourniquet on here but the sound of Rebel's Mother is a bit more modern and not quite as tight (sometimes sounding like a live jam session). Massive crunch guitars with tasteful leads and lots of low end groove fill this cd. The guitar…Similar sounding releases
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