If you like heavy chunky pounding guitar riffs accompanied by some weighty sounding drums and fancy foot work I have the ideal album for you, "Gaia-Medea" by the hard hitting SCARRED.  This album is furious and even when the tempo slows on the track "Idiosyncrasy" it doesn't lose its edge. The only downside is that the songs start to sound similar after a while, this primarily due to the fact that there isn't a lot of solo work showcased on this album. Riffs come one right after another and are extremely strong but over the album they begin to run together. When a band uses their strength over and over again, in SCARRED's case amazing riffs, it makes it difficult for the songs to sound unique. In this case it's a "riff overload" if you will. The tracks with solos, "Mosaic", "Cinder", "Knot", and "Empire Of Dirt" were certainly the most adventurous and remember able. I really would have liked to see more effort put into the solo area because the few solos that were exhibited here were very catchy and it almost seems like these guitarist have a lot of untapped potential. Since the guitars are down tuned the bass is nearly gone and I hardly noticed it at all.

The vocalist can be a wee bit over bearing for his voice is very coarse. At times he reminded me of the harsh vocal style used by TRIVIUM on their older records. It's my personal opinion that if they employed the use of a more diverse vocalist this album would be top notch. The drums have a nice hard hitting feel to them. All drums sound crisp and punchy over the entire album, even the cymbals were clear and resonated well with the rest of the mix. Not only did the production of the drums sound extremely good but the skill of the percussionist was also notable. The drums sound huge and full for the whole set is used. The rhythm patterns and foot work was quite entertaining and reminded me of something you'd hear on a Prog record instead of a thrash album.

"Gaia-Medea" is a riff fest from start to finish with a few solos here and there. The closing track "Medea" is the appropriate closer for such an album, 12 minutes of all out Thrash that never gets old. If you hunger for tasty riffs this album is a must. It kept my attention throughout but a few of the tracks were boring for me because of the excessive use of riffs. The talent is very apparent it just sounds like they are capable of more and that's why I'll be keeping my ear on this band to see how they evolve on future releases.