The Prophecy²³
Green Machine Laser Beam

German cartoon metallers of The Prophecy23 is back with a new album throwing out laser beams all over the place. As its predecessor it has a cool cover artwork looking quite cartoonish and it is once again made by Marvin Clifford who made the previous artwork as well, and it looks a lot cooler for this album than it did for the previous one. This is the band’s second album on Massacre and it is said to be either skater thrash metal or death thrash party metal which goes once again to show that people are working way too hard on labelling music with strange labels. Labels or not, I thought the previous album was quite good with some interesting songs but it was a bit less brutal maybe than it should have been. But now two years later they are back with a new album and two new faces and one face having departed making them nowadays into a quintet and at the same time showing my Yoda-tendencies while writing this. But armed with the power of the force I can easily write this review of the new Prophecy twenty three album.

Musically anyone who has heard the previous album will recognise the style of the band, brutal thrash metal although this time it is more brutal which might be attributed to the new death growler. It is hard-kicking thrashing metal with a rather brutal sound, not much variation on this album though, the songs are kind of in the same form all the way through. Although the are some spoken word parts that reminds a lot of action animated cartoons which in a way is quite cool but not really necessary, and their music is brutal yet catchy and I suppose you could call it party metal for the one into the heavier stuff. The album plays for a healthy 46 minutes on sixteen tracks, healthy when you think of the time but a bit long when you listen to it because of the lack of variation in the tracks. The production I would call very good with lots of power but yet a clean modern sound with just the right amount of roughness to it.

I would say that this album is both better and worse than its predecessor. Better in the regard that it is more brutal and sounds overall better, worse because it lacks the hit songs of the previous album. The cover art is better as well so it is a mixed kind of album, it is good but it should have a bit more variation, it should also have had a hit song to focus your interest on, to make you want to play it again. A good album needs some good focal points to make you want to select it, nevertheless it is a well made album and in most part it is an improvement to its predecessor it should only have a real hit song.

So, in the end I would call this a very good album, powerful, exciting and fascinating. In most part a great album to listen to and it is done right in so many ways except for one small thing, it isn’t.