Assassin
The Club
AGD Records
2005
It gives me great joy
to see some of my favorite second tier thrash bands reforming and putting out
quality albums in the recent past. Another one of my all time faves from
the German scene not named Kreator, Sodom, or Destruction is Assassin. Ever since I picked up their Upcoming Terror
LP I have been hooked. I thought it was sad that they only released 2
albums in what I thought could have been a really bright existence. So
what does Assassin 2005 have to offer us? I have to keep in my mind that the
band members have done some maturing in the intervening years since Interstellar
Experience was released. Gone is the chaos and danger of their youthful
onslaughts and it has been replaced with a more controlled and calculated
approach to songwriting. Don't get me wrong, Assassin can still kick it on
all cylinders but they have incorporated more variances into their songs and
have a much "crunchier" feel to their grooves. No song exemplifies this
better than Psycho Terror with its relentless chugging riff. The
production on this album is much improved from Assassin's earlier releases which
made the guitars sound a little thin and weak. On The Club everything is
full and has an equal share in your ears. Lyrically Assassin has chosen to
use their music as a platform for some pretty political topics such as
Proletarian, the Anti-Bush rhetoric in Not With Us (which by the way is my
favorite song), and I Swear. But there are also some free and fun songs
such as the title track and Bushwhackers. I am told the next album will be
much more straightforward. I like that idea but at the same time The Club
has an emotional depth that is lacking on Assassin's other albums. So I am
of the opinion it'll be a trade-off in one way or another. It just depends
on what you are looking to them for. Either way I am glad to see Assassin
have risen from that grave and have put out an enjoyable album unlike many of
their resurrected peers.
To obtain this CD just write www.assassin-online.de