ASSAULTER

I can't say I was eagerly awaiting the release of the sophomore album from New South Wales' (Australia) ASSAULTER, as 2008's "Salvation Like Destruction" (Pulverised) didn't do a whole hell of a lot for me. The main thing I recall about that debut album was the strange, somehow disjointed production that was just plain distracting. Beyond that I don't remember the blackened thrash songwriting to be all that memorable. As it turns out, I found in "Boundless", ASSAULTER's Metal Blade debut, more than a few pleasant surprises, including a much better production and some noticeable progression in composition.

Also released on Alan Nemtheanga's (PRIMORDIAL) Poison Tongue Records in Europe, "Boundless" may initially appear to be more of a blackened thrash album than is really the case, at least in part a product of guitarist S. Berserker's nasty rasp. The blackened part is not inaccurate and the thrash basis is present to a significant degree (openers "Entrance" and "Outshine" will tell you that right off the bat),but there is just as much, if not more, in the way of rough-edged traditional metal. Beyond its trad-metal leanings, you'll also be taken by surprise on a track like "The Perpetual" during which the band moves into new territory through the incorporation of Middle Eastern exoticness in the guitar lines. More flexing of that style-straddling muscle occurs at its most notable on "Dying Day", which matches the German side of thrash with the ballsy end of traditional metal, like DESTRUCTION colliding with METAL CHURCH.

Regardless of a knack for keeping themselves from being too easily pigeonholed, ASSAULTER also proves itself to be quite capable of writing leads that do more than bite and the occasional harmony that actually increases a song's worth instead of just sounding obligatory. It not like ASSAULTER has breached any boundaries, but "Boundless" is something more than a "logical" progression from "Salvation Like Destruction". The impression of ASSAULTER now taking up space in the brain is based almost entirely on "Boundless". A good thing? Yes, but more importantly, it's a better thing.