Tracks.
1. Ruins Of Mankind
2. Fading To Grey
3. Blood Red Sky
4. Judgement Day
5. Creatures
6. Slave
7. Out Of Time
8. Defender
9. In Vain
10. The Mirror
11. Never Surrender

Band:
Jürgen Dachl - Vocals
Roland Zehrer - Bass Guitar
Stefan Fesser - Drums
Anton H. Lini - Guitar

Diskography:
Debut

Info:
Cover artwork by Artwars Mediadesign

Released 28/10-2011
Reviewed 15/10-2011

Links:
diabolosdust.de
myspace
youtube
massacre

The dust of Mr Diabolo, I wonder if that is what caused what is going on in the cover painting. Is it documentary I wonder, it seems to be showing a guy carrying a few skulls in a field of death, maybe the person is death, maybe he is Diabolo or maybe he is Death. The band that is hiding behind the name and the artwork is a german one, a band of four they are said to play power/thrash or speed/thrash metal and they are now releasing their debut on the Massacre label. A debut that was released last year by themselves but now signed with Massacre they will have now reach a wider audience.

What will strike you when you first are subjected to the music of the album is the general catchiness of it, there are some catchy hooks and very catchy choruses throughout this album. You might want to describe it a bit like a merger of thrash metal and power metal, the song structures with the catchy choruses and stuff feels very power metalish it all with the power of the thrash metal. Sure they are not that heavy, they feel in the style of bands like Metallica or Megadeth. The production is modern and well polished without loosing the edge of the thrash metal label that has been put on the band, simply a very good production is what we can say about it. There are eleven tracks on the album and it takes 53 minutes and a few seconds to play all of them.

One thing striking me as slightly odd with this album and the overall feel of it is the interaction between style of music and the cover art as well as the name of the album, the musical feel is quite positive while there is a lot of darkness in the themes which feels slightly odd to me. And while I am on the things that is not that positive, I might also add that the album is too long with its 53 minutes. The playing time in conjuncture with the lack of real hit songs is making the album feel a tad long, the ending feels a bit like the ending of the Lord of the Rings films which also features way too much that actually say a little too little.

I would say though that my overall impression of the music from Diabolos Dust is still on the positive side of the spectrum, the eleven songs are good with no disastrous tracks. Unfortunately there are no real hit tracks either which makes it feel too long, it is not the quality of the tracks that is a problem it is the lack of variation. I would say that this is a really good album if it gets a few songs cut away from it. I would say that this is another album that adhere to the “kill your darlings”-problem. Judging by the look on the cover artwork I would have guessed that something like that would not be a problem, but apparently it was.

Well, a bit long but it is still a rather good thrash metal album with a clever catchiness and a good baseline to continue from. The only real problem with the album is a too long playing time which makes the overall impression from me drop a little, but as all the songs are good it is a good album. So the ending comment will have to be that it is a good debut album.

HHHHHHH

 

Label: Massacre Records
Three similar bands: Destruction/Vendetta/Assassin
Ratings: HHHHHHH (4/7)
Reviewer: Daniel Källmalm