Desolator - Accelerator
I've always had some sort of bizarre fondness for Desolator. Despite being unoriginal, sloppy, and so cringingly 'thrash' that they've occasionally come across as more of a Brass Eye-style parody of the genre, I still find something alluring about them. Perhaps I'm just a sucker for their raw energy, and I'm old fashioned enough that I feel the need to applaud bands who have the balls to forgo any modicum of production in favour of just letting their songwriting do the talking for them. Either way, thrash fans have always loved their approach to their music without question in the past so it's a shame that their efforts haven't really paid off this time around.
Before I had even listened it, I had a feeling that Accelerator was a rather unneccessary release by it's length alone - two songs clocking in at eleven and a half minutes is a bit of a stretch for a band such as Desolator, whose shorter and punchier tracks are the best weapons they have available (as is the case with most thrash bands) so... well, in reality, this is probably better tagged as a (very long) single with your typical sides A and B. Had Desolator put out four songs at half the length then we may have been onto something, but Accelerator really suffers from being too long for it's own good - yes, it's still thrash that's written well for the most part, and there are some pretty fun riffs to be found, but there's a distinct lack of flow to be found. This is a glaring issue with Position of Power in particular, as the track is pretty much impossible to follow coherently due to the amount of stuff that the band have tried to cram into it; the song's structure is a bloated mess of riffs that never seem to have any purpose beyond padding the track's length, or having a lot of riffs for the sake of... I don't know, looking cool? It's got some fantastic ideas, but the length and somewhat naive impulse to shoehorn in as many riffs as possible really ruins what would otherwise be a decent experience.
I'd had similar issues with Desolator's longer songs on last year's Total Attack album, albeit to a much lesser extent, but another thing that I actually ENJOYED beforehand was the production sound; still as retro, sloppy and raw as possible without sacrificing overall quality. I understand that the band probably hasn't spent as much time or money in the studio this time around, but I thought the idea of doing a followup release was to improve on it's predecessor's sound. Not that Accelerator sound downright horrible (it still sounds better than their 2011 demo) but it's certainly nowhere near as full and thunderous as Toxic Assault. The drums sound weak, the guitars and bass don't seem to have been levelled whatsoever... it's boardering on recording a rehearsal on somebody's phone in places. Granted, the vocals are still drowned in a hilarious amount of reverb, the guitar tone is superb (if a little too trebly in places) and the bass is still as gleefully rubber band-y as ever, but it isn't tied together properly and so the EP just sounds like it was rushed - or not even mixed at all, in some cases. The whole retro sound worked for Desolator last time around because everything was balanced, but this time around it's simply an inferior release.
It's not entirely bad, though. Accelerator does still have some fun hidden in there if you're willing to really look for it, and obviously thrash metal fans are going to love it to death because it's as primitive and thrashy as the genre can get. The biggest problem is that it should never have been released in the first place - if these songs were on a full length album, then the impact of the poor flow and unneccessary length would be mitigated by the other ten (presumably shorter) tracks surrounding them. It's about the context in which the tracks are used, and in this case, releasing these tracks as an EP was the wrong thing for Desolator to do. The Accelerator EP is a huge disappointment from a band that knows better, but speed metal die-hards will worship it - and once the band writes some shorter songs, works on the mixing and puts out another album, I think they'll be back on track again.
Before I had even listened it, I had a feeling that Accelerator was a rather unneccessary release by it's length alone - two songs clocking in at eleven and a half minutes is a bit of a stretch for a band such as Desolator, whose shorter and punchier tracks are the best weapons they have available (as is the case with most thrash bands) so... well, in reality, this is probably better tagged as a (very long) single with your typical sides A and B. Had Desolator put out four songs at half the length then we may have been onto something, but Accelerator really suffers from being too long for it's own good - yes, it's still thrash that's written well for the most part, and there are some pretty fun riffs to be found, but there's a distinct lack of flow to be found. This is a glaring issue with Position of Power in particular, as the track is pretty much impossible to follow coherently due to the amount of stuff that the band have tried to cram into it; the song's structure is a bloated mess of riffs that never seem to have any purpose beyond padding the track's length, or having a lot of riffs for the sake of... I don't know, looking cool? It's got some fantastic ideas, but the length and somewhat naive impulse to shoehorn in as many riffs as possible really ruins what would otherwise be a decent experience.
I'd had similar issues with Desolator's longer songs on last year's Total Attack album, albeit to a much lesser extent, but another thing that I actually ENJOYED beforehand was the production sound; still as retro, sloppy and raw as possible without sacrificing overall quality. I understand that the band probably hasn't spent as much time or money in the studio this time around, but I thought the idea of doing a followup release was to improve on it's predecessor's sound. Not that Accelerator sound downright horrible (it still sounds better than their 2011 demo) but it's certainly nowhere near as full and thunderous as Toxic Assault. The drums sound weak, the guitars and bass don't seem to have been levelled whatsoever... it's boardering on recording a rehearsal on somebody's phone in places. Granted, the vocals are still drowned in a hilarious amount of reverb, the guitar tone is superb (if a little too trebly in places) and the bass is still as gleefully rubber band-y as ever, but it isn't tied together properly and so the EP just sounds like it was rushed - or not even mixed at all, in some cases. The whole retro sound worked for Desolator last time around because everything was balanced, but this time around it's simply an inferior release.
It's not entirely bad, though. Accelerator does still have some fun hidden in there if you're willing to really look for it, and obviously thrash metal fans are going to love it to death because it's as primitive and thrashy as the genre can get. The biggest problem is that it should never have been released in the first place - if these songs were on a full length album, then the impact of the poor flow and unneccessary length would be mitigated by the other ten (presumably shorter) tracks surrounding them. It's about the context in which the tracks are used, and in this case, releasing these tracks as an EP was the wrong thing for Desolator to do. The Accelerator EP is a huge disappointment from a band that knows better, but speed metal die-hards will worship it - and once the band writes some shorter songs, works on the mixing and puts out another album, I think they'll be back on track again.
- Accelerator
- Position Of Power
Self released
Reviewer: Dave Ingram Jr.
Sep 25, 2014
Sep 25, 2014
Next review:
The King Must Die - Sleep Can't Hide The Fear
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