Sometimes when you least expect it a kick-ass album knocks on your door and makes you say Damn, where were these guys hiding all those years? That was the exact thing that happened to me while listening for the first time to Aggression Treaty of Crossfire. Hailing from our neighboring country, Turkey, they are now one of my favorite new acts around.
Crossfire started out in Ankara back in 1998. Till 1999 the band had only played two concerts in Ankara. After a long time of work, the band had finally recorded a Demo but afterwards they decided not to publish it due to their opinion that the recording was insufficient for entering the Turkish underground Metal scene. By mid 2000, one of the founding members of the band, Φz, who had finished his military service and had married, handled the guitars once more. With the placement of Bόlent on vocals, who was known from the band called Tayga, Crossfire had become more powerful than ever and started working on the Decisions Of Hate EP. They published it in late 2002. After their first EP, the band gave speed to concerts but then again Φz left the band because he wanted to focus on his family. Kerem was placed on the guitars afterwards. And the band had finally taken shape and remained together till today.
So, Aggression Treaty is their latest recording attempt. Let me tell you: if this band had formed 15 years ago and they were U.S. residents then Vicious Rumors would have definitely had a headache. It is more than obvious: the Power / Thrash base these guys use in order to build their compositions is definitely U.S. oriented and owes a lot to Vicious Rumors' middle Era. Powerful, technical, massive, explosive, melodic, are some of the words I could use to describe their sound.
Crossfire avoids the trip of playing fast just to do so. Instead they prefer a mid tempo that offers them all the time in the world to expand their compositions and fill them up with nice details. Vocalist Ugur Bόlent Aksoy can sound aggressive or melodic depending on the needs of each song. Songs likes Eternal Lies or Dream Within A Dream will prove me right if you ever get to listen to them. The album ends with the exceptional Don't Fool Me and seals a really cool piece of work.
It seems that albums like this one don't pop out every day so I am sure that the fans of the genre will enjoy this... Aggression Treaty to the maximum.