SUICIDAL ANGELS- Profane Prayer

RELEASE YEAR: 2024
BAND URL: https://suicidalangels.net/

Once again, I must admit that I have never heard any of the Greek thrash metallers’ previous albums, but, if their 8th album, Profane Prayer²⁰²⁴, released on March 1st via the mighty Nuclear Blast Records, is any indication, to quote “Pretty Woman’s” Vivien Ward, big mistake, huge! Frankly, I have never heard something this good since Slayer’s extremely seminal South Of Heaven¹⁹⁸⁸ in terms of songwriting and catchiness!

Suicidal Angels (SA), almost certainly named after Dark Tranquillity’s EP Enter Suicidal Angels¹⁹⁹⁶, had been founded by Nick Melissourgos (vocals, guitars), Kostas Antoniou (bass) and Fanis “Ungod” Anagnostopoulos (drums) with 3 demos (United By Hate²⁰⁰², Angel’s Sacrifice²⁰⁰³ and The Calm Before The Storm²⁰⁰⁴) before they were picked up by Old School Metal Records who released their debut Eternal Domination²⁰⁰⁷ which gained them such recognition that their follow-up, Sanctify The Darkness²⁰⁰⁹ was released on Nuclear Blast Records, howbeit for just one album, as Dead Again²⁰¹⁰, Bloodbath²⁰¹, Divide And Conquer²⁰¹⁴, Division Of Blood²⁰¹⁶ and Years Of Aggression²⁰¹⁹ were all released on Noise Art Records, this, their 8th album, the first to be released via Nuclear Blast Records since “Sanctify The Darkness”.

Of the founding lineup, only Melissourgos remains to date, joined by Aggelos “Angel” Lelikakis (bass), former Biomechanical and Paradox guitarist Kostas “Gus Drax” Drahalivas (guitars) and Orpheas Tzortzopoulos (drums), but, as stated above, I don’t have a modicum of comparison between the old and the new (other than those 3 reviews above), however, what I do know is that Suicidal Angels circa 2024 kicks a lot of modern thrash metal’s butts because it has that quality Slayer once possessed and irretrievably lost after Divine Intervention¹⁹⁹⁴: an ostensibly calm but inwardly furious “talking” vocalists always on the verge of insanity, who can whip out a clean part like Bruce Dickinson out of the blue (the magnificent easy favorite “Deathstalker”) and who doesn’t have to scream his guts off to get his point across, the point being, we don’t have to necessarily sound like the heaviest and meanest band out there but we absolutely must deliver stellar and fresh songs, and those SA has in droves.

The opener, “When Lions Die”, is some of the catchiest and freshest metal since Trivium’s legendary Ascendancy²⁰⁰⁵, and this perfect track is actually the only one that has lyrics I can relate to, about how those most noble, virtuous and strong are too often defeated by the conniving wicked who don’t play fair in this traumatic and terrifying world, at least that’s what I’m getting from it. The aforementioned epic “Deathstalker” is absolute songwriting mastery, a kind of Kreator high on Iron Maiden with twists and turns, ebbs and flows which make the over 8 minutes go by fast as if it were halfway its length, and that parting melody, which strongly reminds me of both All That Remains’ “Focus Shall Not Fail” and Fear Of The Dark¹⁹⁹² Iron Maiden has been stuck in my brain for 2 days now! The title track is another highlight, tight, precise but catchy as lice in a Polish public elementary school, plus the solos, the SOLOS bring the old Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman to mind and, on that note, SA show they’ve basically the same knack for simple but memorable choruses in the infectious “Guard Of The Insane” that made me think of “Spirit In Black”, howbeit this is one track where they get a little too close to the thrash masters to the extent that you could close your eyes and pretend it’s Slayer and you might just fool yourself (another example is “Purified By Fire” where the intro riff staccato is very similar to “Silent Scream”) . Not content on being a one trick pony, as some of their contemporaries tend to get, the closer “The Fire Paths Of Fate” rides on a Behemothian Middle Eastern riff straight from Apostasy²⁰⁰⁷ album for another progressive lengthy with citars and transitions and such, not as great as “Deathstalker” but still an impressive ending.

No one’s perfect even when they’re trying and Suicidal Angels are no exception on “Profane Prayer”. While “When The Lions Die” is perfect, his immediate follower, “Crypts Of Madness”, very good in its own right, sounds a lot like the opener’s lesser brother, whereas the standard thrashers “The Return Of The Reaper” and “Virtues Of Destruction” show that SA is still not quite willing to really throw caution to the wind and use thrash as the skeleton and not the main course, but, overall, these guys are definitely headed in the right direction. I have heard from some reviewers that this is their best work, so I believe it, especially since I like it a lot more than the last Kreator, and let that be a good harbinger of things to come.