Despite In Your Despite

by Alissa Ordabai
Staff Writer

The debut release by Swedish metallers Despite is all about confident, tight riffing, fast-moving harmonies and death-style growling unified under the umbrella of a clear and precise thrash vision. Even with the album’s demo-level sound quality, the band’s gift for perfectly delineated compositional ideas comes through loud and clear on every track. They can handle complex time signature and can write beautifully elegant melancholy middle eight parts, but this outfit’s gift for diversity goes beyond the usual set of standard skills expected of a thrash band. There is genuine feeling and a lot of heart in each of those tracks, and that makes this record stand out among scores of other thrash releases which choose to merely go through the motions.

Given enough time in a decent studio with a producer who knows what he is doing, Despite could really go places. So far; however, their level-headed, workman-like approach to marrying a romantic vision of metal to satisfying meat-and-potatoes thrash chops is as good a foundation as any young band can hope for. Their ability to write concise, perfectly balanced songs as well their passion for what they do, should, in the end, attract enough attention and resources to take them from clubs to arenas and beyond. Overall, the band is a welcome new addition to the legion of thrash adepts.

Label: Tractor Productions

Track Listing:
1. MindPlague
2. Rain
3. Beast in the Cage
4. Mechanical
5. Crehate
6. Rise Above
7. No Fucking Way

Hardrock Haven rating: 7/10