Review by Felix on April 4, 2020.

The debut of these jesters that call themselves King had not convinced me, but everybody deserves a second chance (with the exception of Adolf H., but that's not the issue here). Well, Lich King are still somewhat funny - or they intend to be funny, to say it more precisely. The painfully faceless 'Black Metal Sucks', to name just one example, fits into this context. It does not possess one interesting tone and, even worse for such a number, it fails to meet my humor, because the lyrical smear campaign against the Norwegians ("quickly riffing on one note") makes me think of the old story of the stones and the glasshouse. The moronic artwork falls through the net as well. But the main problem is that the songwriting skills of the formation still leave room for improvement. Big rooms.

This is not to say that each and every composition lacks good ideas. The first regular track with the overlong title (another unbelievably funny detail, please laugh right now) combines a certain catchiness with some dynamic elements and the instrumental section after the second chorus is almost breathtaking. Lich King are able to create a frenetic fury, but sometimes they are too blind to realize that their songs have nothing that attract the listener's attention. 'Thrash Resurgence' illustrates the dilemma. Some more or less Slayer-like riffs which were too bad to be used on the early works of Araya's ensemble do not establish a sufficient base for a good song.

Anyway, Lich King stick to the pretty sharp sort of riffs and every now and then they surprise with a remarkable dexterity. Sometimes the guitars are really fast, just listen to some swirling sections of 'Predator'. Too bad that exactly this piece suffers from stale and quite powerless verses, because it also holds some exciting parts. Early Exodus greet and the vocalist sounds almost like Paul Baloff (R.I.P.) from time to time. But don't jump to conclusions, Lich King are light years away from the masterpieces of the veterans. The chorus of the title track has nothing but an overdose of speed and that's definitely not enough to challenge the idols. Once again, that's a pity, because the instrumental parts of this tune do not lack vehemence and power, but I guess you agree that a good song consists of more than only some good sections.

At the end of the pretty well produced album, it seems as if the formation tries to break the chains of its compositional formula. The second part of the band anthem begins with a melodic intro that opens the door to a more multi-layered pattern. But old habits die hard and therefore Lich King present another (acceptable) number with many high-speed parts. I don't say that the majority of their pieces suck, but in many cases the different sections of the songs do not go hand in hand or they show significant differences in terms of quality. Given this situation, I confess that I still don't hail the Lich King. Despite some promising ideas and the good opener, the King left his second chance unused.

Rating: 5.5 out of 10