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Artas
"The Healing"
(Napalm Records)

What?!?! I can't believe these guys are from Austria - they sound so American!!! Kinda like a new version of Exhorder (80s) or Pissing Razors (90s), these guys are strictly meat n potatoes playing fast chugging modern metal like Annihilator (but not as guitar dominated) or even Death Angel. Steaming guitars, strained vocals, neck cranking snare, tornado riffs and of course, heaps of double bass drumming! Luckily it's not runaway but controlled with excellent song structures and quality arrangements that prove the quality of Artas. They do an interesting cover of Coolio's 'Gangsta's Paradise' but it's songs like 'Bastardo' and the alternating mellow gravelly voiced cum wall of sound 'Through Dark Gates' that showcases best the talent of these newcomers. Artas = Metal and "The Healing" is anything but that cos these dudes are takin' no prisoners - be warned!!

-Shan Siva