DEATHSTORM's "As Death Awakes" marks the return of the relevancy of 80's Teutonic Thrash era. Okay, that may be an aggression, but this Austrian trio's take on Thrash is very much harks to the hair-swinging, diatribe-spitting days of KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and to a lesser degree, SODOM. Fans of that particular spinoff of Thrash will have a lot of like about this records, from its very raw production, almost muffled and stifled where drums and vocals are concerned (on purpose, of course), to the low-fi crunch of guitars and deep, hollow tone of the bass - all contributing to a raw, dark, old school feel.

They aren't mimicking bands of the 80's all the way through, they have some dynamic and "contemporary" moments, with more melodic riffs, giving the songs brighter melody than say, a POSSESSED record. They also do not speed through the entire album, giving their musicality some variety and more sensibilities. They throw in an instrumental track as well, "Nebelhexe", which very nicely diversifies the character of the entire album. The band is trying to say: "We love the Teutonic Thrash records, but we have some ideas of our own that we thought will make things better". And it really does, cloaking the otherwise one-dimensional, howling aggression of Teutonic Thrash with modern Heavy Metal suavity and a much-needed dose of nostalgia. DEATHSTORM also lends some inspiration from some Bay Area legends such as SLAYER, with a tweak and jarring guitar melodies complemented with speed riffing that boosts the aggressive and violent quality of the band's overall sound.

The vocals are viciously putrefied with acid-spitting contempt and growling, snarling verses - almost punkish in the way that it is so unabashedly churned out, beleaguered keeping up with the chugging riffs. In that sense, there's a real devil-may-care aspect to their music that is about raw emotion and pure male aggression. The band does not flit about caring for marketability or finesse, they spit it as it is with pure daring, a la "take it or leave it." They do offer up some crowd-pleasers, with mid-paced breakdowns that make you want to crack all the furniture in your house with your long moshing and headbanging. Come on, everyone has that moment.

In the end, it can be said that redundancy does catch up eventually and unfortunately overshadows sincerity and real coolness on the band's part, but that's what it is with most of these modern-but-old-school bands. They deliver to us what we miss, throw in one or two of their own signatures, wrap the thing up and market it with a cover that reminds us of old DESTRUCTION, LICH KING, and WHIPLASH mixed in one.

"As Death Awakes" is not one of those one in a million, milestone breaker albums-that "go on to redefine Teutonic Thrash", it's an album for some good old Teutonic Thrash fun. Take it or leave it. If you take it, you'll be in for some nostalgic, mindless headbanging-good time. If not, you'll miss out on a new band with aggression and energy to boot, but you'll still be able to turn to the next best thing. Either way, nobody loses, because I think the guys of DEATHSTORM are too busy moshing in the studio to care about anything else.