Band:	Diamond Plate
Album:	Pulse
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	August 2013

01. Walking Backwards
02. All Of It
03. Price You Pay
04. Dance With Reality
05. Still Dreaming
06. Face To Face
07. Bottom Of The Glass
08. Rainmaker
09. Persistence Of Memory
10. Running Dry
11. Power Thrashing Death [bonus]

I might have given Diamond Plate's first full-length a bit too high of a score, but I did really enjoy it. Still throw it on occasionally. Won't be doing that with Pulse.

It's not from a lack of memorable riffs, they gave us a plethora of those here. Shaking the "meh" feeling throughout this thing is just too difficult.

The vocals stand out as one of the weaker aspects, as they did on their debut for most people (not me, so much). Their new vocalist is at his best when his monotone shouting strains into screeches, and that just doesn't happen enough. Most of the time, it sounds as if he was holding back?and holding back on a thrash album is like being stingy when buying booze. Leads to a through-and-through lose-lose scenario. When the vocals go balls to the wall, they sound great. When they don't, which is most of the time, they're just tedious.

Again, the riffing here is excellent. Like on Generation Why, there's an emphasis on rhythm. It feels more Dimebag-esque than before, with little explosions of melody preventing tracks from stagnating. There isn't one track that won't get you bobbing your head or uppercutting the air.

It's just, there's a serious lack of fun on this. It's not at all melancholy or anything, it's just bland. Real bland. And that bland feeling is wedged in by the over-mastered production quality of it all. With this style of revived thrash, I want fun and excitement, I don't want to come out of it feeling like I was just shouted at about anomie by some half-drunk chest beater with a microphone for 40 minutes.

Seems like these guys were going for a Vulgar Display of Power meets ?And Justice for All sort of thing, and they just didn't pull it off. Which really sucks considering all the many riffs that feel wasted as a result. There's something almost sad about that?here are all of these beautiful, little, ugly, massive riffs and they're basically ruined by the boring feel of the album as a whole.