Review by Felix on December 11, 2023.

Algebra, what a name for a band. It reminds me of the poor grades in maths that I produced with great naturalness and questionable consistency. Fortunately the music of the Swiss thrash brigade is no academic exercise. The guys dish up earthy, crispy riffs that do not lack sharpness and dynamic. It makes fun to experience that “Chiroptera” unites the most important elements of the thrashing genre. Especially the factor energy does not come off badly in songs like “Resuscitation”. But “Chiroptera” also knows what it does not want to offer. Nonsensical, infantile details do not show up. This is no “Poser Holocaust” or any other kind of bullshit. Algebra perform a mature form of thrash without sounding tiring. There is a spontaneous note in their compositions and so they cannot be blamed for predictability.

Of course, their maturity is not the perfect partner for an old school thrash massacre and indeed, the album sounds partly rather modern than traditional. But this is no case of black or white; similar to bands like Mortal Vision from the Ukraine, Algebra combine both worlds. Maybe the production tips the scales. Don’t worry, this is no sterile mix, but it also does not have much in common with the somehow charming sound of the classics. Algebra set the focus on a high degree of clean transparency. Additionally an emotional solo like that of “Eternal Sleep” is hardly imaginable on an album from the eighties, maybe except for outros. (The whiny back vocals in this track are also pretty odd.) Nevertheless, broad parts of “Chiroptera” follow an adequately brutal approach. The quartet lets steam off and this is nothing that worries me. The opposite is true, the album holds some pretty strong tunes. Just let me mention three of them.

I already mentioned “Resuscitation”. Its flow is not perfectly arranged, but it houses many sequences which are filled to the brim with aggression, force and pressure. “Kleptomaniac” sounds like a bastard of thrash (due to the rasping guitars) and hardcore (due to the vocals). “Constricted” cannot be confused with its predecessor. It offers a slightly eerie mid-tempo approach that combines pretty unusual melodies with dry riffs. These are the first three songs after the intro. Why do I mention this? Well, despite the fact that the other tracks are mostly more or less on a par with them, it is sometimes difficult to keep the focus on the musical offering. To create a clear, maybe even catchy flow is not the main competency of the band and so I miss a more coherent approach from time to time. Nevertheless, the positive aspects dominate (this is a big difference to my school “career”) and especially the title track depicts the glory of powerful thrash metal.

Rating: 7.3 out of 10