What happens when members of Aussie brutes Destroyer 666 and Aussie precision bombers Razor of Occam team up? Assaulter. Is it thrash metal? Yes. But does it have a bit of black metal? Yes. Actually, it’s the very sound replicated in the mid-’90s but with a double-punch to the nuts and noggin.
Says Simon Turner (aka S. Berserker):
“‘Slave to King’. Well, I guess you could consider it the dark horse, or even under-dog of the album. It was the last song to be completed for Boundless!, but one that had been worked on for a solid year. Needless to say, it turned out nothing like its embryonic version. The main aim, from my perspective, was to really match the music to the lyrics, which are solely based on a modern day Animal Farm and the acquisition of absolute power under the banner of ‘god’ and the dispersed parasites that leech in its name. It had to be marching, sinister and dark, whilst all the while maintaining a feeling of pious arrogance and even, to some degree, salvation. I won’t elaborate on the lyrics. I think it’s quite obvious what they’re about.
The bones of the song were kept quite bare so as to allow Hellfinder a lot of space to lace it with his guitar themes, which certainly add a triumphant feel on top of the darker chord structures beneath which ultimately complete the aural vision of the song’s topic.
So here it is, one of the strongest tracks of the album. Marching, menacing, sinister and sprawling.”
“Slave to King”
[audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/04-Slave-To-King.mp3]
** Assaulter’s Boundless! is out March 15th, 2011 on Alan Averill’s (Primordial) Poison Tongue Records, a Metal Blade imprint. Order it here.
