Review by Felix on August 14, 2022.

It’s sad. It’s sad to see a band with an enormous potential that releases a (solid) album far below its capacities. It’s sad to listen to the new material of a band that can nail hammering outbursts full of anger into your ears, but instead of doing so, it prefers to meander between strict, powerful eruptions and lukewarm melody-stamped compositions. Defiatory, you guessed it, is one of these combos that jumps short for the second time in a row. If they go on this way, we will never get anything as good as Extinct again. And that's sad.

The Swedes, that’s for sure, are still able to write pure thrash killers. 'Only War' is a fantastic whirlwind full of double bass, razor-sharp riffing and powerful vocals. The apocalyptic chorus crowns the track and the lyrics are also great. “Broken legions watch the enemy arrive” – this picture characterizes the entire aura of the song. No doubt, to make this song the first one available on youtube was no coincidence. But how many songs of this quality can we find on Apokalyps? 'No Place To Hide' is driven by Slayer-riffs, but this eargasm ends already after two minutes. 'Let Them Burn' lives up to its name and generates a fiery heat. Only trace elements of softness appear.

On the other hand, there are nearly tired sounding pieces like 'Knives' (total throwaway track) or 'Assassinate' which derails during the overly harmonic chorus. They lack aggression, vehemence and intensity. Perhaps I witness the revival of the sub-genre “radio-friendly thrash” (read: no thrash at all) that was once invited with “Enter Sandman”. Frankly, I could do without this experience. Between these poles you have the so-so tracks like the (representative?) opener. It delivers some parts full of pressure and power, but also a meaningless atmospheric intermezzo. More or less the same applies to the closer; it begins in a vehement way, but it also presents some Maiden-esque lines during its second half. Somehow the beginning and the end show sustainably that the here collected material is not free of laxity. I am not sure what the mixed portfolio says about the authenticity of the musicians. But I don’t want to offend anyone and at least their manual skills are beyond doubt (as it is more or less always the case when it comes to Swedish musicians.)

The production does not disgrace the metal-exporting country Sweden. Apokalyps has enough muscles to stand up to comparisons in technical terms. However, the music is the crucial factor. Maybe I expected too much and no, Apokalyps is no bad output. It’s just not what I wanted it to be. Maybe I am the problem, who knows? Anyway, I want my kind of thrash pure, musically violent and sticking to the old school yet fresh. Defiatory plays partly a bit differently while with one eye always squinting for new scenarios. It’s sad.

Rating: 7.2 out of 10