In Europe, German Thrash Metal School shared all the attention of the fans worldwide with USA School. On Germany, a a fact happened: KREATOR, DESTRUCTION and SODOM weren’t born as Thrash Metal acts, and the three took definitively such path when their music became internationalized, but some releases of these acts (SODOM on “Expurse of Sodomy”, DESTRUCTION on “Eternal Devastation”, KREATOR on “Flag of Hate”) helped to create the following feature: German Thrash Metal School is more aggressive and violent than North American Thrash Metal (again: SLAYER is an exception). And such feature is spread throughout European Schools of the genre, and the Finnish quartet FREEDOMINATION depicts such feature on its first full-length, “Until the Lights Go Out”.

Pekka “Splendid” Laine (bassist of AMORPHIS and known producer on Finnish Metal scene) made the recordings, worked as producer, and did the mixing and mastering of the songs, having the helping hand of Tommi (the band’s bass player) on the recordings (and he did the art for the cover as well). The final result is a typical Finnish sonority: clean and defined to the point of making some melodies evident, but’s aggressive and distorted as well. It's clear to the ears that the quartet drank a lot from Thrash Metal made in Germany and UK, using an aggressive outfit that can tear ears apart; but at the same time, the natural melodic DNA of Finnish Metal School is presented in many moments (pay attention on some moments on “Sin Road” to check such thing), and even some touches of MOTÖRHEAD can be heard on some songs (as the Punk/Hard Rock elements of “Tear Down the Wall” on the guitar riffs), and Hardcore/Crossover traits (listen to “Unleash Hell” and try to keep your heads stopped). It’s extremely personal, full of energy and impossible to resist to!

“Sin Road” (dirty and aggressive, some melodies are tempering things up, and what great work on bass guitar and drums on the rhythms), “Heaven Sent” (where some ‘motörheadian’ traits appears on the guitars), “The Raven” (a slower and oppressive song with vocals being expressive), “Second Chance”, “Tear Down the Wall” (another moment with clear influences from Lemmy’s gang) , “Smoking Gun” (a good technical appeal can be heard on this one), “Unleash Hell”, “Down with the Rain” (the Hard ‘n’ Punk touch makes the melodic side of the band’s music evident) and “Until the Lights Go Out” are charming pieces of Thrash Metal, and offers to the fans something unusual in a world of clones.

It’s clear that FREEDOMINATION can mature a bit more, but’s impossible to not give the quartet applause due their work shown on “Until the Lights Go Out”.