Jumalation
The Church of Isaac

January 2010
Released: 2010, Old School Metal Records
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

Jumalation was the very 1st band that was signed to the Californian-based Old School Metal Records back in 2004, or 2005. I do not remember precisely any more as it´s been a while since they became one of the recording artists for this label.



Years have helplessly passed by since then, and finally the church of Isaac has been built up, I mean this literally even. THE CHURCH OF ISAAC is the title of these Finnish old-school thrashers Jumalation´s debut album, containing 8 songs that don´t leave any question marks hanging above any of our heads whether their album was worth the wait or not. I can assure you fuck yeah, it was. I can even shamelessly bet my dirty underpants for my exuberant reassurance for this matter.



Jumalation have obeyed their golden rule since the beginning for keeping things old-school, avoiding any kind of modernization of their sound like a lethal plague. The 8 songs on THE CHURCH OF ISAAC is all about ´keeping it old school´; old-school Thrash to be more precise - and basing my sheer excitement about this release solely to how well and convincingly Jumalation puts up a frenzied thrash party of their own on their debut album, I cannot be anything else but very darn satisfied and happy.



It´s also a great thing to notice that they haven´t ignored their past songs at all. All the 3 tracks from their balls-nailing 2004 promotional demo have been included in this opus, as well as 2 songs from their 2000 THRASH ATTACK demo (wish they could have also taken "Disgusting Void" from the same demo, as that song is one relentless thrash fucker too - reminding me slightly of early Dark Angel). The 3 brand-new tracks, "Land of the Damned", "Rebellion" and "Tormentor" kick an enormous amount of ass too - sounding simply just crazy pieces of crisp, heavy and unpolished thrash, done in the true old-school spirit and style. "Tormentor" is even a fuckin´ epic piece of a Thrash song, lasting over 8 minutes that I did not expect from a band like Jumalation in the first place at all. It just reeks of Thrash Metal´s epicness alá "Flame of the Antichrist" by Onslaught.



There´s always this somewhat familiar early Dark Angel-ish / Slayer-ish / Infernäl Majesty-ish / Destructor-ish and Sacrifice-ish vibe involved with the basic sound of Jumalation, which is nothing but a great thing in my opinion - bashing some hard yet uncompromising facts into the concrete wall that the guys of Jumalation ain´t any yesterday´s rookies for thrashing our brains out with their merciless Thrash cavalcade of songs. The whole album is filled with killer yet very convincing crispness and necessary heaviness of Thrash riffs, strong and violent vocals, catchy enough song structures - and first and foremost, with absolutely right attitude and mentality to knock all of us down by what I call true old-school Thrash Metal madness myself - just like many bands managed to convince me about their Thrash-tasticness back in the ´80s.



THE CHURCH OF ISAAC truly fulfills all my expectations about a fabulous, very oldschool-tinged Thrash Metal album, that I ´only´ have to wait 6 years for something to come from them. But damn, it was still worth the wait, abso-fuckin´-lutely!



Jumalaare senttä! The best pure Thrash Metal album ever recorded in Finland is here! THE CHURCH OF ISAAC seriously rips immensely much! m/