RED GEM OF HADES

"Aggressive Dissension" by the Twin-Cities' RED GEM OF HADES is the product of vocalist Pat "Flex" Young and guitarist Kyle Vraa who decided that the world needs some deathly thrash metal with classic heavy metal guitar solos. To that end, the duo has succeeded. As far as studio projects go, the debut effort from RED GEM OF HADES (the name taken from a line in TESTAMENT's "Raging Waters") has more positives than negatives and on the whole turns out to be rather enjoyable.

"Aggressive Dissension" sounds like the guys played it straight from their hearts and had a grand time doing so. The arrangement fundamentals center on dirty groove riffing and a decent knack for writing memorable refrains. The no-frills approach is refreshing in this age of technical overkill, while the passionately performed melodic leads and wailing solos (check out the ripper on "Barbarossa", one of two songs with Vraa's less effective croaky vocals) give the album a big boost. Young's vocals are of the throaty type, sort of along the lines of a Paul Speckmann. In fact, the title track has a modern-day MASTER vibe to it in the riffing as well. The tracks on which RED GEM OF HADES nail it though are "The Red Gem", which has a vague USURPER feel to it and standout track "March into Death", which recalls "Kill 'em All"-era METALLICA right down to the "Search and Destroy" riff snippets, although the track has an almost peppy cadence to it. A fierce solo is included on this one as well.

On the down side, a couple of the songs slow the momentum and don't flow quite as well, such as "Drowning in Cocytus" (the other one with Vraa on lead vocals). The Beta Monkey drum loops basically get the job done, but become distracting after a while, mainly due to the thinness of the kicks. Those caveats aside, "Aggressive Dissension" is worth checking out if you are tired of searching for your music above ground.