Album Review: Downfall – Punishment For The Infidels (Memorial Records)

The latest release from Downfall is a sonic assault of old school trash metal with death metal vibes. Punishment for the Infidels was released on March 17th 2017 via Memorial Records.

The band had this to say regarding the theme behind the album: “Punishment For The Infidels’ shows anger, violence and frustration, resulting from the desire to not be submitted to a society that works for omologation and annihilation’.

From the start of The Torture you can’t help but get a real Slayer vibe from the intense speedy riffs. The vocals are far rawer though & a shredding guitar solo is the highlight. It’s a solid start if not a bit uninspired. A killer final minute or so with a real ear-pleasing drum beat keeps things exciting though.

The intensity is then upped for Pleasure for Murder. Some seriously excellent riffing makes this a vast improvement. The squealing guitar solo really sounds like the cries of a wounded animal.

What drives this record on is how it builds excitement throughout. God’s Hand is a great example of this with a great chugging riff. The quality of the drumming is seriously high here. It’s a song that gets better & better, just like the album as a whole.

Downfall are way more than one trick thrash metal ponies. After the slow start it’s amazing just how much better the record gets. Slaughterism has a slower pace but its doomy chug is the sort of thing that you could listen to all day.

Punishment for the Infidels flies by at smash-mouth speed, a bludgeon to the head. It’s intensity never lets up creating moment after moment that wakes the body & mind up. The brief guitar flurry & spoken words of Last Prophecy flows directly into Mass Homicide, a more traditional thrash metal song. Coming at the latter end of the album you could be worried that Downfall are running out of steam but this double attack proves otherwise.

The album comes to a close with one last frantic flurry of pure aggression. Machination of Revolution confirms the talent in Downfall. It’s hard hitting riffs & exciting bursts of speed finishing things off with a bang.

Punishment for the Infidels is a banger of an album. It starts off a bit slow but once it gets moving it’s unstoppable. For all its old school-ness it has its feet firmly planted in a modern day take on the thrash/death metal sound.

Downfall – Punishment For The Infidels Full Track Listing:

1. The Torture
2. Pleasure for Murder
3. Corrupted in Black
4. God’s Hand
5. Slaughterism
6. Misanthropic Solution
7. Feeding the Beast
8. Abyss
9. Last Prophecy
10. Mass Homicide
11. Machination of Revolution

You can pick up the album from Memorial Records here & over on iTunes. Check out Memorial Records on Facebook, Twitter & YouTube for more Downfall news & videos.