Review by Greg on December 17, 2024.

For another German band reaching its first two decades of activity, I had never heard of Eradicator before their sixth full-length The Paradox ended up on my list. Much like Rezet, they don't seem to be your typical Teutonic breed of thrash, and this artwork further scrambled my expectations about it.

The Paradox is, well, a strange album. The fact that I sometimes had their fellow countrymen Extinct, who released their sophomore "Incitement of Violence" a handful of months earlier, in mind is anything but a good sign, since said album was a truly dull effort. Notably (and luckily), the guitarwork is generally way more competent, that's for sure, and Sebastian Stöber's vocals aren't as amateurish, yet they don't attract applause, either, and that might be the reason for those unpleasant flashbacks. He rarely shuts up, not particularly shining for distinctiveness (nor pleasantness), almost as if he's trying to do harsh vocals, but he can't quite get it right, so all we're left with is this sort of strained voice, to the point I start worrying about the health of his vocal cords in several tracks ('When the Shooting Begins', 'Hell Smiles Back', 'Debris of Demise'). Bottom line is, again, Germany has seen (and heard) soo much better in this field.

Coherently, 'Beyond the Shadow's Void' is also a strange opener. Instead of the predictable fastest song of the album, here we get a thrash/groove hybrid (way too imbalanced towards the latter) that might as well have been taken straight from one of those obscure, misdirected 90s efforts from famous bands. It makes one brace for the remaining 9 tracks, but the pace eventually picks up, and the first half isn't half bad. 'Kill Cloud' is notable for being an extremely rare successful mid-tempo track, where the vocals are more restrained and the main riff is honestly well-crafted. 'Drown In Chaos' and the title-track offer the best thrash Eradicator have to offer here, although it'd be hard to overlook Stöber's distracting vocals, with the horribly vocal-centric mix being partly to blame. The rest of The Paradox then whizzes by without leaving any huge impression, with many unimpressive moments, as well as a truly perplexing one, i.e. the half-ballad 'The Eleventh Hour (Ramble On)', which is handled as horribly as you might fear. Better not insist too much on it.

The Paradox promised a different experience already from its artwork, and while in some places it kinda was, it also wasn't a particularly enjoyable one, and surely not enough to convince me to track down Eradicator's vast back catalog. Pass.

Rating: 5.7 out of 10

Review by Jeger on July 29, 2024.

From The States all the way over to Germany… and that’s about it, because nobody does thrash metal like us and them: Big 4, Teutonic Big 4, and not to mention the young breed who seem to be doing it better than the legends these days. Whilst Kreator and Destruction exhaust themselves in their attempts at creating metal reflective of their own legend status, spit-to-the-face of selling out, young blood outfits like Eradicator quietly remind us of why we started thrashing our little hearts out in the first place.

Thrash = Attitude, and without the latter, the former would not exist. As we grow older, we secretly become more bitter and that youthful fire gets extinguished long before we’re ready for it to be. That’s why much of what you get out of bands like Megadeth and even Dark Angel just doesn’t sound right anymore. These dudes are just cashing in, and the passion it takes to make viable thrash metal waved bye-bye to these geezers a long time ago… If the attitude isn’t “Bonded By Blood” then guess what? It ain’t thrash metal. Crystal? Good… On September 20, 2024 Germany’s Eradicator will release their sixth LP, The Paradox, via Metalville.

Ten cuts and no filler. No time for the bullshit have Eradicator and with The Paradox, it’s simply a matter of delivering the goods… every… fucking… time with each and every track. Not necessarily your foot-smashing-the-accelerator thrash, more like the early 90’s mid-tempo’d stuff and packed to its gullet with superlatives like the blazing lead in the titular cut - a masterfully composed homage to Testament - likely unintentional, but I can definitely hear Chuck wailing to this one. Similar intricacies in riffing as well but laced with Municipal Waste level grime and yes… attitude… Fire up the bong, crack open the Jack and jump in the pit, dude, because it’s that kind of affair. Fuck it, circle pit this bitch to the sound of 'Perpetual Sacrifice' as it plays out in Suicidal fashion. A little West Coast action here as groove and a little funk unfurl. Triumphant backing vocals to bolster an already scathing vocals attack and did I mention those leads? Guess I should mention the guitarists: Sebastian Stöber "Seba" and Robert "Robb" Wied’s collective energy in the solos department serves as a nice contrast to the tempered pace of the album. There are some mundane parts… Some passages that play out too long and some overly-repetitive choruses that always get saved at the very last minute by those scarce, but definitely longed for flashes of the blade. 

The Paradox closes out with the impressive 'Debris Of Demise'. Death Angel vibes and highly expressive, almost maniacal vocals here as opposed to the fairly redundant drawls of the album’s previous tracks. Eradicator belt it out here with literally everything they’ve got and it’s fucking HEAVY, risk-taking thrash metal; the shit that I really appreciate, and every great thrash album should come equipped with something unorthodox like this.

Lyrical explorations of the human paradox and one epic tale of post-environmental-catastrophic extraction from planet Earth gone horribly wrong… I guess you can call it material relevant to our times as we stand upon the cusp of total societal and environmental collapse. Not your whiny left-winged bullshit, just real end of days-reveling, old-school cataclysm-laced concepts that challenge perception and cast humanity in a proper humiliating light. And the music runs astride with the epic of the theme, but barely. Just enough for the record to feel legit, and that’s really all that matters. Anything outside of that is usually overindulgent nonsense anyway. Not the best, but definitely ain’t the worst, and if you happen to be in the mood to listen to a pretty damn good thrash album that exudes the right kind of attitude, then here’s your Huckleberry…

Captivation: 7/10
Concept: 8/10
Cover Art: 8/10
Production: 7/10
Revisitability: 7/10 

Rating: 7.5 out of 10