Review by Yener on May 25, 2019.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this album yet, as it's had such a big impact on me in a lot of ways. I got this back in the days when the internet wasn't really around (1996 is when I picked this up) by going to my local metal record store, and just having the store owner suggest albums to me. This was one of the suggestions, and as soon as he started blasting it right there in the store, so I could get a taste of it (it was "Blood Brothers" that he had turned up to 11) I knew that this had to be mine.

I remember taking this home and just being blown away. "Blood Brothers" isn't even one of the greater tracks on here, and neither is the first track. However, they set the mood for the masterful dose of metal that's unleashed in the rest of the tracks. "Infernal Desire" is just so fucking good, I remember the calcium shaking off my teeth when I heard it for the first time. The riffs are very old school, no nonsense, head down, riff until your arms hurts kind of deal, and I miss it so much in today's metal it's ridiculous. Piles and piles of riffs, unrelenting, unforgiving, just sheer perfection. It's not all about just speed, either, as the breakdowns in this album is how breakdowns are *supposed* to be. Grinding, groovy, and sure to get your head moving.

The drumming is definitely worth noting. Up until this time, I was basically listening to a lot of Slayer and Sepultura, and while I loved those bands, I always wanted something a bit more. Dave Culross is that bit "more" - the guy is just spot on here, and I love his cymbal work especially - accentuating exactly the correct spots in the riffs, hammering them home. The way he uses that china and splash should be a lesson. While he's not pushing the musing to the absolute extreme without making it seem silly, he's basically displaying a tremendous amount of power blasting through these death/thrash masterpieces.

And make no mistake, that's exactly what this album is, a death/thrash masterpiece. I haven't heard another band or album that even comes close to this when it comes to mixing these two styles together. "Unearthly" is another prime example of the band set to just absolutely kill - the intro, the riffs that follow - everything just explodes like a M69 hand grenade. "Alliance or War" has one of the best intros ever, of course from Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket", and the song itself boasts some of the best riffs on the entire album, riffs that you will remember for years to come.

I first got this album on cassette tape (remember those?) and side B is actually better than side A, which is a very rare thing. Side B just absolutely demolishes, especially... all of it. The last 6 songs are absolute fucking monsters. The title track will have you headbanging happily, "Hideous Reprisal" is just a groovy mosher of a song, and "Tasteful Agony" is probably my favorite track on the entire album. A sonic assault from start to finish, it really makes you wonder why it's so hard to find music these days with the same sense of passion and urgency found in this era of Malevolent Creation. This shit is just fucking flawless.

Jason Blachowicz vocals are pretty outstanding throughout - even the vocals are a perfect mix of death and thrash. Phil Fasciana and Jon Rubin just decimate with their riffs throughout this entire whirlwind of madness, and nothing more needs to be said about Dave Culross. He just makes the album. It just would not be the same with a shitty drummer or shitty drum parts. It just wouldn't work. He drives the band into the next level, and it's so crucially important to the overall sound and feel of the album.

Really, do yourself a favor and pick this up. Not having it already is pretty criminal in my books for any self-respecting death or thrash fan. This is a lesson in metal, this is how it's done, and this is how it's supposed to be.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Review by Felix on May 9, 2019.

Even though widely ignored, The Scourger have been a formidable thrash unit. For ten years, they have not released the faintest tone of music and therefore I fear that they are buried by time and dust. (Sorry, but "De Mysteriis dom Sathanas" is always on my mind, albeit The Scourger have nothing to do with Mayhem.) The masterpiece of the manageable discography is Dark Invitation to Armageddon, just enjoy its fantastic title track, but large parts of Blind Date with Violence offers vibrant sounds as well. The here presented edition is enriched with seven bonus tracks, new recordings of Slayer and Testament, three live versions of regular album tracks and two exclusive studio recordings. However, let's have a look at the regular album at first.

Blind Date with Violence is a full-length which is spiritually related to works of German bands such as Contradiction or Scornage. The maliciously nagging of the lead vocalist, the double bass powerplay in combination with the restless snare and, of course, the slicing riffs shape songs that are fully aligned with the guidelines of the genre. Drummer Seppo "Lombardo" Tarvainen reveals his influence already with the choice of his nickname, but he has also written the partially Slayer-esque music and it is sad but true that Kerry King is no longer able to forge songs like the direct and compact "Hatehead". This sonic weapon banishes many recent songs of the US American trailblazers to mediocrity while maintaining the strong level of the swirling opener. "The Oath & the Lie", another straight aggressor, is cut from the same cloth.

I regret that the Scandinavians add some melodic elements from time to time, because they dilute the impact of the material. No doubt, the album achieves a pretty high degree of diversity in view of this approach. But I prefer the pure essence of thrash metal (Just like the monument of Mayhem, "Reign in Blood" is always close at hand) and so "Maximum Intensity" does not live up to its name. Its slightly flabby chorus fails to meet my demands. It's one of these somewhat greasy "late-The-Haunted-melodies" that some bands from Northern Europe deliver every now and then (and nobody knows why). It is also true that the group runs slightly out of ideas at the end of the full-length, but this does not constitute a major flaw.

The album connects the past and the present of thrash, because its song patterns avoid groovy nonsense as well as complex structures which are going nowhere, but the rather modern, robust and vigorous production does not celebrate the past for the sake of itself. Everybody who was involved in the recordings at Seawolf Studio, Helsinki, has done the job in a good manner. The aforementioned speed eruptions shine in full glory, but the same goes for the mid-paced, relaxed yet relatively dark "Invitation Thirteen". Finally, the bonus section starts with the pretty vehement cover versions, but the more interesting titles are the further studio tracks that originate from the pen of Seppo. Well, the solid "The Greediness" suffers from a slack solo sequence, but the restlessly attacking "Black Worms" takes the audience by storm. That said, I can promise that thrashers cannot go wrong when buying this album, even though it cannot compete with the second work of The Scourger. Only the actually good live tracks appear as a fake with regard to the very loud and enthusiastic reactions of the audience.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10