Normally I try not to do older material on this site unless it’s a retrospective review, but when I opened my submissions this summer, I got asked to review the 2014 Chains of Death EP by Poland’s AfterLife and thought I’d give it a quick shot. Though their brand of thrash metal combined with elements of classic heavy metal doesn’t generally appeal to me, it does have a certain charm to it, with fairly technical riffing and a raw, old school style of production.
Opening Chains of Death with “Land of the Broken Mirrors”, AfterLife take a slower start to the EP than one might expect from a thrash metal band, leaning more on their classic metal influences with the first track and taking the chance to show off frontman Tomasz Wiśniewski’s vocal range. The raw production, while not doing much for the bass guitar, helps to give off the feeling of this being very much in the vein of Anthrax and co’s best known output, and complements the influences that made this album. The thrash really starts to kick in once “Possessed” gets going, with the pace unrelenting through the next few tracks, in particular in the chaotic title track, where Krzysztof Hofler and Wiśniewski really show off their guitar playing capabilities.
The main problem with Chains of Death is that it really wears its influences on its sleeve and those influences are from a very particular style and time, as such, if you’re not a fan of music from the time that influenced this EP, there won’t be much here for you. The raw production has charm if you can appreciate how far they went to emulate the sound of their predecessors, but if like me you’re big on clean, thick wall-of-sound production, the guitars can come off as quite thin and lacking. There’s also a lack of variety available here. AfterLife have got a fixed idea of what they want to sound like, cheesy lyrics and all, and go head first into it. You don’t really get anything other than what the first one or two tracks imply. But at the same time, this EP is very much aimed at those who enjoy the “golden era” of metal and they’ll find plenty to love here. If you’re not of that target demographic, then this isn’t for you and you probably won’t find anything to convert you.
You can stream the EP above on YouTube, and follow the band on Facebook.