Deathroner - Death To All (2010) - Exchangeable old school speed metal - 50% (24/10/11)

If you wouldn’t know that Deathroner was a contemporary band from Jonquière, you would bet some money on the possibility that the four or five musicians are an old band founded in the middle of the eighties somewhere in the United States of America and probably in California. Deathroner play old school speed metal somewhere between thrash and black metal without any compromises, contemporary influences or own and unique attempts. Even though this kind of music has become quite rare and exotic, I miss something outstanding and personal about their rather closed minded music. Deathroner have the reputation to be a great live band and when I actually saw them there were a lot of old and young people that banged their heads, thrashed one into the other and made some wall of death attempts. I was standing there and getting bored because every song of the band quite sounds the same and there are no surprising parts, memorable passages or emotional moments. I’m tired of ordinary bands that are living in the past and they are just another one of them.

Deathroner deliver high speed thrash metal with mediocre death vocals, fast but emotionless drum patterns, fairly interesting galloping bass lines, aggressive rhythms that go in your face and sharp guitar solos. They sound like a mixture of Slayer, Venom or the Canadians from Razor to me and many other bands we have all heard and known. While the instrumental execution, energy and passion of Deathroner is actually intense, I would always prefer the originals to them. As a regional live band, they may do a good job for many but the purchase of a record isn’t at all what I would call an essential addition to any collection. As all songs sound the same I won’t pick out any and describe or have a closer look on it. I don’t really know why they got signed by Morbid Moon Records and Devil’s Blood Productions. Maybe this band reminds the owners of their wild youth. Musically, Deathroner sadly sound completely exchangeable. At least, they have a cool logo and great album cover to say at least something positive again.

This is the kind of band about whom I’m sure they won’t evolve and experiment much in their career and that’s why I won’t check out their future releases and go to another live show. I guess this is simply not my cup of tea but I wanted to give them a fair chance as I saw them live with a few other Canadian underground extreme metal bands and got the tip to check their album out. Anybody that likes straight forward speed metal should check their release out without the glimpse of a doubt and will get in contact with a band that knows its roots and hails their idols proudly, blindly and in an energizing way. Anybody else will listen to the band and as soon forget anything about this uninspiring living in the past approach.