Process
Through Acknowledgement Only

November 2012
Released: 2012, Independent
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

It’s with a lung-emptying opening scream that Danish metallers Process finally widely introduce their debut album Through Acknowledgement Only. The foundations for the album have been some years coming, with Process getting their shiz together in the studio back in 2009, where they recruited renowned Danish drummer Mads Lauridsen (Konkhra/Panzerchrist/The Cleansing).



Having shouted down your lug-hole, Process proceed to whip up an eight-track frenzy that is generously-seasoned with modern thrash and death metal touches. Throughout the album, the work of Mario Mrsic makes you hope he at least gave his guitar a good send-off after playing it to near-death, and in fact that kudos should be extended to other plectrum-slinger Anders Møller Pedersen.



Aside from the light-fingered guitar works, it’s the clean vocals on ‘Fatality and ‘Turning Pale’ that keeps the flame of interest burning – they sound a lot like Michael Poulson of Volbeat, but that might just be the shared heritage speaking. Closer ‘Layers Of Deception’ also stands out for its slower paced beginning, turning into speed-driven riff-out, and its I’m-playing-it-all guitar solo.



It sometimes starts to feel a bit metalcore as the screamed vocals and similar riffs pile up over the course of the album, so that ‘Reasons To Resist’ and the title track ‘Through Acknowledgement Only’ go by with little more than a passing acknowledgement. All the parts are there, but Through Acknowledgement Only plays like an album where the band are still in the process of seeing how they fit.



Review by Kirsty Birkett-Stubbs