Ever had a dream so vivid it changed your life? Eat too many magic mushrooms, blue cheese or get Coronavirus before bed and there’s a chance it’ll happen. The latter is what occurred to Dennis Ahmer as he lay in his bed in Ohio; he knew he had to put a death/groove/thrash band together and he named it Paradoxicide with the band releasing their debut album ‘Savior’.
If that isn’t a messed-up start to your career, then what is? “I had a fever dream and I had to make a death/thrash album”. Well, you know what? Thank fuck they did because ‘Savior’ is actually decent, it doesn’t have the sound of a middle aged bloke having a midlife crisis, this album is actually the sound of a young band hungry for success as tracks such as ‘Blood of Kings’, ‘Crown of Rust’ and ‘Plastic Throne’ have the thrashing grooves of Sepultura, Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy, in fact there is a lot of homage to Max Cavalera here, but also enough to bring in fans of late 90’s Testament as well as riffs that may even make the head of Slipknot fans turn as the vocals almost turn the clock back a good 25 years.
For a debut album, ‘Savior’ does the job, it is fun and enjoyable and its rough around the edges only adds to the charm. There is some work to do as Paradoxicide find out who they are musically, but until then, just sit back and enjoy some decent death/thrash done with some real adoration.
