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VICIOUS KNIGHTS
Alteration Through Possession

Dying Victims Productions (2022)
Rating: 8/10

Immediately drawn in by the cover art, I descend into the basement of this record and find myself intrigued by Greek metal band Vicious Knights – a leather-clad trio of Harvester (vocals / guitar), Panos (bass) and Liakos (drums) that has been in circulation since 2016.

I wasn’t familiar with the previous demo and EP the band put out, but again I couldn’t overlook the cover art of this. Thankfully the music is decent too.

I guess it helps not knowing what to expect, and in my head I had all sorts of assumptions from a Mercyful Fate-style to standard heavy metal. But I was pleasantly surprised by what is essentially a black thrash attack.

This is a very aggressive, sniping record that pretty much harkens back to the halcyon days of 80s, spiky thrash – think Kreator, Destruction metal on a Teutonic level, while also combing the depths of the underground South American scene.

Opener ‘From Nothingness (To A Slave Of Darkness)’ is straight up hostile, dehydrated thrash; speeding axe used with barbaric bass and wild, punked up percussion. You’ve heard it so many times before, and yet when executed correctly those electric shocks still frazzle and fry the ears.

‘Sleep With The Ghouls’ is hyper punk melody married to German cold steel frenzy, while ‘Swing From The Grave’ is sped up New Wave Of British Heavy Metal with blackened nuances, and ‘It Was In My House’ is utterly toxic in its thrashing hostility.

The band rarely deviates from its plan, but there is an eerie atmosphere created, helped of course by that cover art. But whether it’s the rampant gallop of ‘The Boneghoul King (The Miserly)’ or the explosive ‘Vicious Knights’, the patterns are similar yet lethal enough to exorcise even the most persistent of demonic spirits.

These guys have firmly latched onto me and I’m all the better for it. Alteration Through Possession is a menacing and marauding opus that I tempt you to try.

Neil Arnold

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