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Throwing me for a loop is the German export, Spellbound. Looking at this band's album cover, all that I could think of was L-A-M-E. Seeing the name of the band and the name of the album, “Incoming Destiny,” did nothing to help me feel that this wasn't going to be a really sucky listening experience. What I expected was some shitty classic rock with songs about magic crystals and dark elves or some stupid crap like that. The next thing I know, I'm getting my ass kicked by some seriously AWESOME thrash metal! Raw, fast, furious and very well put together thrash metal straight out of Slayer's womb. Vocalist/guitarist, David Maier, has a traditional thrash metal voice; not extremely gravelly like most metal today, but definitely not clean. More gritty than Tom Araya, but just by a nudge. His vocal delivery is very much like Tom Araya's in the 80's. This band REALLY reminds me of Slayer. Late 80's and early 90's Slayer, that is; when they were a machine but still hungry... you know, when they put out their best music. Maier and fellow guitarist, Daniel Tschoep, lay down frenzied riff after frenzied riff of aggressive, unrelenting thrash. They sound just like Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, more so than most bands influenced by Slayer. I guess these guys are total Slayer clones, but if you are going to emulate a band, it might as well be one of the best bands on the face of the planet, right? Drummer, Andy Flache, holds down a very solid foundation. Nothing flashy, but straight to the point. Sometimes you don't need to have mega awesome chops to be a good drummer, and this guy shows it. He's fast and that's all this music really needs. Bassist, Hannes Jäger, kinda gets lost in the mix, as most thrash bassists do, but I guess that that isn't all that important. Copying bands may be bad, but they copy Slayer the right way. I've listened to this disc about ten times now, and I every time I say to myself that these guys just fucking rock. They got some mean ass riffs that I can't help but nod my head to. The one song that doesn't sound like a Slayer song on “Incoming Destiny” is “Focus 22”, which sounds exactly like an Emperor song. That's kind of odd, considering that Emperor and Slayer don't sound anything like each other. I had to go online and make sure that this wasn't an Emperor cover. The vocals sound like Ihsahn's vocals, the riffing sounds like the newer vintage of Emperor, sans the overuse of pinch harmonics, and I thought for sure this wasn't an original song. It is, though, which leads me to believe that this band probably can't really write anything that is genuine, but they sure as fuck can draw inspiration from good bands to write good music. My favorite song's on this disc are “Trust In Fire” with the cool lead break in the middle of the song, the frantic riffing and the cool, simple outro to the song. The opening track, “Sonic Departure”, has really cool riffing, as do all of the songs, and Maier's vocals really shine, in my mind, because he shows a little bit of range without losing any of his grit. He's actually a better vocalist than Tom Araya, I think, and not just because I like more gritty sounding vocals, but because this guy really knows how to be a great thrash vocalist. Honestly, every song on this album is a good one, though none are original in sound, it's still good headbanging thrash metal and if you want to branch out from your Slayer collection without branching out too far, this ain't a bad pickup. I see that they have a follow up album out now, so perhaps they have spread their wings a bit further and found their own sound, but if they aren't ready to do so, the Slayer sound isn't a bad one to emulate. I give this band three out of five headbanging monkeys, only because of the lack of inventiveness. It's still metal as fuck, though. Pick it up if you get the chance.
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