Mantic Ritual – Executioner
Nuclear Blast Records
(3.5/5)
Nuclear Blast Records has been a label of great artists for years and there have been quite a few great debut albums that have come through the label. Mantic Ritual’s Executioner is no exception! Now, as much as I love Heavy metal and many of its sub genres, Thrash metal has never been at the top of the list and it probably never will be, but I have to give it to these guys. When first listening to the album, I heard the first track or two and thought “Great. Just another Thrash band with the same old repetitive drum beat.”, but I was proved wrong. It does start off with the obligatory Punk style drum beat, but the rest of the album progresses into a great mixture of old school Thrash influences such as Slayer, Metallica, and Megadeth with the new Thrash to create an excellent overall debut. The members I have to give the most credit to are the guitarists Dan Wetmore (also vocals) and Jeff Potts. I am a firm believer in the rhythm section of a band (being a bass player myself), but these two guys really help the experience of this album turn away from the same old same old sound of today’s Thrash, and they bring a true form of Thrash to the table. Some of the main tracks I would focus on for these guys’ shredding solos and guitar play are “Black Tar Sin” (Track 3), “Death and Destruction” (Track 4), “By the Cemetery” (Track 10), and “Next Attack” (Track 11). “By the Cemetery” is the main one of those four because the opening shred in the song and the later shredding guitar solos as well as the smooth transition into “Next Attack” where there are no holds barred to finish out the album. Overall, Executioner is a great album for any Thrash fan to have in their arsenal.
