The Scourger
Dark Invitation to Armageddon

February 2008
Released: 2008, Stay Heavy Records
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Luxi Lahtinen

From the moment "No Redemption" blows out from the speakers, no excuses or compromises are expected or given out. The Scourger´s are well armed; ready to split skulls and crush the bones to pieces, letting their refreshing and aggressive thrash/(death) metal invade through your brain and soul - and eventually filling you up with a feeling of becoming severely exhausted, I mean, in a good way. "In the Hour of Ruin" pushes you even harder toward a concrete wall while a faint touch of ruthless metal hammer kisses your forehead gently. As one saying goes, ´no rest for the wicked´, some mercilessly punishing moments are offered also in "To Tame a Life", but especially "Never Bury the Hatchet", which could admittedly consider the most wicked piece of thrash there has ever been churned out from The Scourger´s killing team. The song is even more testosterone-filled than what can be found from the appearance of the band´s muscular shouter and frontman Mr. Hurskainen (sorry Jari, but I simply had to make this clumsy reference!).



The other half of the album basically doesn´t show any signs of calming down. The band´s use of a gas pedal for certain things in metal music with a heavier and nastier approach becomes evidently a part of reality in such songs as "Dark Invitation of Armageddon" and "Beyond Judas", in which the guys don´t hesitate to burn some more rubber in the name of a headbangable, thrashing metal madness. The Scourger´s twisted tendency to love some more epic and heavier sides in metal, is revealed in "Deformed Reality" and "Reign in Bestial Sin" that both add a welcomed breath of variation into the band´s madly raging sound.



So, go´n´ hide behind your miserable barricades and caves now because The Scourger troops have no intention of saving any of you from their wrath. DARK INVITATION OF ARMAGEDDON contains a pretty ugly metal music indeed, done by some ugly thrash suckers. But on the other hand, you do love to get punished from time to time, don´t you?