Scythe Beast opens its gates.
Created in Germany in 2012 by Sven Stoppelberg (guitar/bass/vocals) as a studio project, the musician recruits Andreas Tegeler (Poverty’s No Crime, Level Fields, Bleeding…) on drums. A first album is released in 2016, then the duo recruits Jens Weymann (bass), Frank Schwenker (guitar) and Claus Ulka (vocals, ex-Misery Speaks, ex-Difused) to begin lives. The band releases Indicted for Misconception in 2021.
Passing from a duo to a full band only enriches the band’s Melodic Death/Thrash, and doesn’t really change its identity. Whether voice changed a bit, the composition stays in this contrast between raw violence and sharp melodies, while staying solid at every moment. King of a Dead Land, the first song, offers a quite Old School sound, taking advantages of leads coupled to those communicative screamed vocals to increase its strength, then Kill Machine offers a martial and catchy rhythmic. Some coldness can be felt from riffs, then Soulicide picks into swedish influences to offer a warlike and weighing ambience. Colonize goes back to its aggressive and catchy atmosphere that makes us easily headbang, just like the fast Indicted for Misconception. Aggressiveness is present on verses, then the chorus is still federative, while Signs of the Decline traps us with a hooking groove that will rage on stage. For the Love of God is next with very accessible melodies and a heavy rhythmic, that will accelerate without being too violent, allowing a simple transition between Old School and modernity, while Truth Beyond comes to strike with ravaging harmonics and sharp leads. We end with Scapegoat, one of this album’s most raw and violent songs, permitting to confirm the band knows how to handle the style’s basis while adapting them to its universe.
With Indicted for Misconception, Scythe Beast shows us two things. On the first hand, the band knows the style’s rules it uses. On the other hand, its adaptation is very effective, and is really looking forward to going back to stage.
75/100