Shoot The Messiah - Kill All Gods

Hailing from Amersfoort in the Netherlands, Shoot The Messiah bring forth onto you their version of this death/thrash thing that seems to have become very popular as of late. Don't get me wrong, it has been around for a long time, the idea of mixing thrash into your death, yet it seems to be picking up steam with a lot of younger bands as of late. And my biggest complaint for most of this newest action is that they all seem to rely on the playbook laid out by Lamb Of God, take some Swedish death add some Testament or Kreator riffs and repeat. Much like any fad that has come and gone, it gets rather played out and boring rather quickly. Sadly, Shoot The Messiah are guilty of subscribing to said playbook mentioned above.

Now, I don't want to sound like a cynical old asshole here, for these gents have an ass load of talent and can really fucking get after it and "Kill All Gods" is a rather fun romp around of death/thrash, but it just all feels rather like the same thing after awhile, almost, dare I say, formulaic. It gets to a point where things even become predictable, timing of fills, resolution of riffs and, hell, skip to three quarters into almost every track and you have yourself a solo, usually a pretty killer solo but it's pretty predictable too.

I do not mean to completely shit all over "Kill All Gods", for it is not a bad album, it is rather good and as I said, fun, it is a good driving record. Yet, the downfalls of being so formulaic and same-y (for lack of a better term) just drag down the overall enjoyment of a full length venture. Shoot The Messiah has the potential and the chops to do something great, they just are not there yet.

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1. Oblivion Walker
2. Arise
3. Shoot The Messiah
4. Adducam Infernum
5. Here Dead We Lie
6. Locust Of The Abyss
7. Civiltrapped
8. Morgellon


Self released
Reviewer: Ben Schultz
Sep 10, 2019
Next review: 12 O’Cock - Split

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