Review by Greg on July 15, 2024.

After having seen their first full-length effort Evil Unseen hit the shelves, somewhere in 2016 Envenomed found themselves looking back at where it all started, namely the self-titled EP, and probably felt there was potential in it, with the hindsight of a half-new line-up and, most of all, seven more years of experience under their belts. Thus, with Reckoning the band decided to offer a little extra something in between LPs (sophomore The Walking Shred would see the light only three years later) and re-recorded it, with the addition of an exclusive brand-new track.

The title-track is obviously the EP's main draw, a cut heavily inspired by Anthrax circa Persistence of Time and a killer song through and through, at least for its first half, although with a totally anticlimactic post-solo part and ending that tries its best to leave a bitter aftertaste, but still the best episode all things considered. That's because I was rather lukewarm about most of the tracks from Envenomed, although I have to admit unearthing them was the right move for the band. Truth be told, from a mere listening standpoint, I think I actually preferred the original production – even though this is far from bad anyway, just not as raw. The rest, though, was improved. Mav has become a way more convincing singer by now, and there is also a nice touch in the several backing harmonies (arguably by bassist Dave Lowes) that somehow reinforce the Bullet for My Valentine comparison, but really make the original feel like they were missing something akin. Similarly, Brendan Farrugia injects new life into Sean Blanchard's already great original shredding, giving it a bit of professional polish without the need to rewrite much.

Granted, the songs are still too long for their own good, but personal highlight 'Rages War Within' really sounded like it'd have deserved a re-recording, and so it does, benefitting from all of the above advantages – while 'Failure to Falter' moves some inches closer to the 'good' side, with its always fantastic solo. I'd close with a possible remark on the tracklist rearrangement, which seems like it was conceived to be in reverse order to my tastes, placing my two less favourite songs right after the opener, for a grand total of 12 minutes straight of personal disappointment, and the best one at the end. But without being too much of a dick about it, Reckoning does as good as a re-recorded album can do, especially given how bad these kinds of things usually turn out to be...

Rating: 7 out of 10