When Profane Prayer the new album from thrash metal marauders Suicidal Angels hit my mailbox, to say I was excited is putting it mildly. The day had not been a very good one but that all changed with its arrival. Hitting play became a matter of the utmost urgency, and the resulting metal attack was fiery and vicious.
The record hits you with the one-two punch of “When the Lions Die” and “Crypts of Madness,” an incendiary beginning if ever there was one. But these first two tracks pale in comparison to what comes next. An explosive cut and personal favorite hits you in “Purified By Fire”, and that hit is as subtle as a right hook from Mike Tyson. When that feeling subsides, along comes “Deathstalker,” an eight-minute magnum opus that immediately cemented itself as another album favorite. The title track is, like much of this album, a lesson in killer riffs and machinegun-esque vocals. The guitar work of Gus Drax meshes perfectly with the vocals/guitars of Nick Melissourgos.
One thing of particular note is the bass on this disc, especially on “Guard of the Insane,” which combines Angel Lelikakis and drummer Orfeas Tzortzopoulos in a frenzy going to town, but in a controlled manner. Throw in a killer solo from Gus Drax (again!) and this is another winner on a record full of them. Closing the disc is “The Fire Paths of Fate,” a nearly ten-minute epic that is easily one of the best I’ve heard. Bottom line? Profane Prayer is not only an absolute beast of an album from Suicidal Angels, it is one of 2024’s best…period.
Standout Tracks: All of them!