Lich King - Born Of The Bomb

Artwork by Tom Martin from Lich King

In the biography section on the Bandcamp page Lich King has a pretty good description of what they're about:

We create new old-school thrash metal in the vein of EXODUS, VIO-LENCE, S.O.D., SLAYER and others. We think the sound of thrash was perfected in the 80’s and we’re not trying to add anything to the mix. We’re just coming up with riffs and songs that the old masters didn’t.

So nothing original then, but it is good? Let me start by pointing out that Born Of The Bomb sounds fantastic. The production is clear and dynamic. The riffs sounds big and fat, the bass is audible, prominent even, and off course the drum sound is perfect (Born Of The Bomb was produced by Lich Kings's drummer). And the musicianship is top notch, featuring a super tight rhythm section and spirited soloing.

The songwriting then?, you may ask. It is quite solid. There's the requisite catchy retrash tunes, but a little Vektor style dissonance creep in here and there, and they move into epic thrash territory with Agnosticism. Which features the best soloing on the album (and that is saying something), and also these interesting lyrics:

Existence and what's after the end is unclear
Religion, turn from reason and live without fear
Oblivion, logic tells us that nothing awaits
The answer, is it worth what the question creates

Go and ask the scientist
Go and ask the holy man
Both will claim to know what follows death,
so in our wisdom
Agnosticism

This is mixed with over the top thrash tropes like Maybe other bands play and maybe Manowar kills. But none of that shit matters Lich King rules from We Came To Conquer. I like this mix of tongue in cheek goofiness and more serious stuff. I like the music too. The quote from the Bandcamp page is continued on Lich King's Facebook page: Despite that fact and our best efforts, we seem to be developing a signature sound. Dammit. I am curious as to where this development leads the band.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]