Suspiria – Unlimited

After listening to Unlimited, I was glad I’m not the only one who still loves the 80’s. On the Norweigan band’s third album, Susperia has taken a new approach on an old genre — 80’s thrash metal.

Although the first forty-five seconds of the opening track “Chemisty” have a black metal feel to them, once the song kicks in it’s all old school thrash. Many of the songs share that style — black metal intros tacked onto pure power metal tunes. Fans of Testament, Overkill, Exodus and possibly even Pantera will get a kick out of the album’s interesting blend of genres. Traces of black metal can still be heard for sure (mostly in the guitar tones and the super clean production), but the song structures are definitely a tribute to that great, lost era. In fact, there isn’t a hint of black metal in the vocals at all — vocalist Athera’s style completely fits the genre, offering a mix of both clean vocals and throaty howls. Athera even pulls off some Judas Priest’ish screams near the end of “Years of Infinity” that old schoolers are sure to enjoy.

Unlimited’s ten tracks clock in at around 45 minutes. Every track contains that mixture of a little black metal and a whole lotta thrash. Tracks like “Devil May Care”, “Home Sweet Hell” and “Beast by Design” are some of the best, showing that the band may be using an older style, but the ideas contained within are new and fresh.

Unlimited is a fresh take and a new idea, and certainly a great album. There’s just enough black metal parts sprinkled throughout the disc’s ten songs to give fans of the genre a smile, but not enough to scare off non-fans. At the heart of Unlimited lies a solid thrash album. Definitely recommended to fans of all things rock.

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