Suicidal Angels - Profane Prayer (2024)

I have not yet recovered from this album. You see, Thrash is not my main genre so when I enjoy an album, I do it tenfold. Suicidal Angels are a Greek Thrash Metal band that consistently release good albums for two decades, spanning across eight full lengths. While trademarks of the genre are found in every of their works, one cannot deny how their sound evolves with each try. Just listen to the debut Eternal Domination, the follow up Sanctify the Darkness and then Profane Prayers to witness the giant leap in songwriting.

In this album, you will find 9 new songs with varied durations and structure. In the opening When the Lions Dies, you will witness your typical unrelenting drumming but guitars follow a more melodic approach with clear, sharp riffs that have enough room to breathe. Crypts of Madness and Purified by Fire will not let you relax, until the latter’s last part where groove takes over speed.

Deathstalker is a slower 8 minute track that at times is more like classic or epic Metal than Thrash. In the next four songs you better come prepared because the band will just hand you your brains. This is what real Heavy Metal is all about and adrenaline hits red! I must also take a moment to venerate the lead guitars of Guard of the Insane, seriously, can a solo get any better? For the closing part, we have the other long song that starts with a female chanting, before instruments gradually show up. During its duration we will have mostly mid tempos, with some outbursts here and there and great focus on the guitars.

Overall, the guitarwork in this album is phenomenal at all speeds. The solos are not jabbering and while technical, they always hide melodies to discover. Vocals are aggressive as Thrash demands, but have clear enunciation and will create singalongs even from the first listen. Rhythm section helps in building various tempos to keep things interesting and avoid staleness. The band has reached a level of maturity, to the point they don’t show off their ability to play fast. It needs great musisianship to play one less blastbeat in this genre, in favor of a slower approach that will benefit the song. And Suicidal Angels know where to hold the leash and when to go wild.

I always try to find some things to criticize when reviewing to give the whole picture, but Profane Prayer makes this a difficult task. If someone forced me to say at least something, that would be that avid extreme Metal fans, may find that this more mature Suicidal Angels form has fewer rabid moments for their liking. For me, they are reigniting my love for pure, orchestration and keyboard free Metal.