Band:	Evoke
Album:	Seeds Of Death
Style:	Blackened thrash metal
Release date:	September 2020

01. Deadly Revenge
02. Seeds Of Death
03. Souls Of The Night
04. Leviathan's Victory
05. Wrathcurse
06. Demons Of War
07. Lords Of Destruction

The only way to make thrash sound dangerous is to either be an extreme metal pioneer in the 80s or to sound like one.

This being Evoke's debut, you can kinda guess which of the two Seeds Of Death is. I get to namedrop bands like Venom, Sarcófago, Sodom, Hellhammer and Possessed all I like, I might even drop a Messiah and Poison (GER) just for those credibility points, but you probably already know the sound. Speed/thrash/black whatever. And all those namedropped bands are relevant and all, but probably the most important band to namedrop in this conversation is Deathhammer, since they basically became poster boys for this sound in Norway, and also Evoke's vocalist/guitarist Kato Marchant played live with them back when bands played live. So they're probably your best reference for Seeds Of Death too.

As I said, you know the sound. It's fast, dirty, evil, fun, and it does cheap drugs in a back alley. It's everything your conservative mama is scared of. Ok, not everything, since it has nothing to do with socialism, immigration and homosexuality, but the sex, drugs and rock & roll of olde. And devil worshiping. It's manic. It makes you wanna put umlauts on every vowel. It's favorite movies are retro B-horrors. It parties all night and sleeps late. It's riffs are fast and savage. It's very malcontent with religion, politics and the status quo. It wears denim and leather, retro 'staches and long mullets. It dislikes anything Metallica made after '88, maybe even after '84. It still thinks Satan is cool and scary. It watched Dark just because a Kreator album is a major plot object there (which was pretty cool all things considered). It asked the bar for the cheapest booze available and then still sneaked some from the supermarked nearby. It must've slept drunk on a bench in a park at least once. It always smokes but never buys cigarettes. You know the sound. Hopefully you love it too.

Because Seeds Of Death is that sound, a whole load of it. Sure, the last track has some cellos, but up until that point it's just a non-stop party of hellish riffs and spewing roars. Thankfully with a pretty modern production that doesn't make it feel not raw enough for its own good. So all that's left is being too fast for its own good. Surely this album must've amassed some fines for breaking some speed limits. You probably anticipate the criticism: one-note, lacks diversity, doesn't bring anything new to the table. Do you care? I hope so, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this review, but in all likelihood if you like the sound, you like Seeds Of Death, and if you don't, 30 minutes ain't that long for another try. I mean, a man spewing evil drenched in oh so much reverb, riffs that don't overstay their welcome, just a drop of technicality, a pace that barely ever slows down, and a production that had the "fun" button turned to 11.

Yep, that's pretty much the sound. One can only hope that Evoke do eventually do a little bit more with it.