This is the first review I've written in a year so I'm not sure where to begin so I guess it will be best if I start at the beginning. About a year ago I had to stop writing reviews for this site because I was so swamped with work that I couldn't even think straight after a full day's work but these days I'm doing night shifts so when Steinmetal (the editor) asked me if I wanted to come back, I was glad to comply, but I said that I only want to take on reviews which truly interest me, he asked me what kind of stuff I like and after I explained he said ''ok here's this band called ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE, try it out'' and from the very first moment I listened to it I knew that Steinmetal hit the spot, first horse was the winner.

There is simply so much for me to love about ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE's output, starting from their fat guitar sound, their chugging sludgy riffs that thrust forward in a ''take no prisoners'' mentality which you simply can't stay indifferent to, good song progression, brutally heavy groove, a variety of musical influences and a vocalist that dominates a wide range of extreme vocal styles. If I have to categorize their music I'd say it's a crossover between Sludge between Sludge and Hardcore, the riffs are mostly from the Sludge realms but their attitude and the way the songs are constructed clearly derive from Hardcore, what this basically means is that fans of bands such as BURST and MAMMOTH GRINDER are in for a treat.

I would also like to add that Even though I enjoy heavy and brutal music it's hard for me to fully enjoy Metal that doesn't have a melodic side and clean singing in the mix these days, more often than not it makes things look one dimensional to me but fortunately this wasn't the case with this album which is another plus. Having said all the flattering things it's still hard for me to go totally ape shit over this album because even though these guys clearly have their own thing going it still doesn't feel like these guys are truly original. I recently managed to articulate in my mind that what I feel when I listen to something that feels truly original is that I am subjected by a distinct message from a unique entity and in the case of ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE it feels more that they are passing on various things they were subjected by instead of subjecting their own message (god I hope that makes sense). So in terms of originality this band still has a way to go but the closing song "Happy Hour (Disciple of Death)" with it's amazing post metal riff and the touching acoustic outro titled Ends Meet suggest that even though the road will end someday as all roads do as the title of the album implies there are still promising journeys ahead in the road of ARMED FOR APOCALYPSE.