Almost every single day I find something new. A Thrash Metal band from Luxemburg, well that is rather fresh for me, but it is always great to find Metal in smaller places. I come from a rather small place in the world, maybe vast than Luxemburg in territory, but there are other things important than that. It also depends on the music environment around your area to watch out for things that you are might be interested in. Within the material forged by the rather young SCARLET ANGER, and their debut album, "Dark Reign", I found the meeting place of old and new, the veteran wave against the new wave of Thrash Metal. In general, though a devoted old school fan, I like it when new Thrash Metal bands draw inspiration from the both ends of the table. When it comes to SCARLET ANGER, I noticed that their musical aspects seemed to be enthused from old acts such SODOM, KREATOR and SLAYER while also drawing several elements from the new generation of Thrash such as WARBRINGER, EVILE and HAVOK for instance. Of course that there are shifts to a few additional directions but those are really minimal and almost non-existent for the naked ear.

All the way through this album SCARLET ANGER seemed to have been trying to come forth with uneven riffing and odd compositions alongside the classical ends of the genre in order to keep a certain perspective to their Thrash direction. Though at first I perceived their material as a mere straightforward strike while unleashing a large amount of anger against everything that moves or breaths around their vicinity, the band partially succeeded on adding another dimension to their aggressive form with catchy choruses that even resembled semi-anthems while contributing more with ambiguous rhythms and crude soloing. Songs like "Face of Evil", "Game Over" and "Prince Of The Night", among others, which also smashed their own viciousness, consisted of such inspiring choruses that didn't just end up with the song's title and the hell with it. Moreover, "Face Of Evil" for example also shared several of great melodies at the side of the crushing speedy riffing and menacing paces. Admittedly these tracks made me fond of the vocal manner of the band's vocalist that at first didn't attract much attention while displaying as common in the extremer version of Thrash Metal, especially the ones inspired by the European scene.

SCARLET ANGER, though the hidden will to achieve their own signature on upon their old school oriented Thrash Metal image, also created the grounds for the ultimate straightforward stuff such as "From Fool To King", "Follow The Order", which also display slight new era of KREATORish melodic sections and "Dark Reign". Even though nothing was that too memorable about them, maybe "From Fool To King" can be left out of the list, those kicked with high energies and tough attitudes that any type of Thrasher would love to get his or her hands on. SCARLET ANGER has something good going. Their seemed to be attempting to go slightly against the grain is interesting and I would love to hear more from them in the coming future.