Lazarus A.D.

When late-era thrash influenced brigade Lazarus A.D. released debut album The Onslaught in 2007, they were heralded as the next Metallica, with scribes announcing how this quartet would "crush the world." While they're still looking to get us in the palm of their hand some three years later, sophomore effort Black Rivers Flow certainly gets disturbingly close. Taking overt Pantera influence, coupled with Death Angel's melodic twists, circa Act III, the prominent progressive chug of the three important Metallica albums, while factoring in Ozzy-esque background vocals, tinges of melodic death metal and infectious verses and choruses, the album rides a strangely attractive line between sounding entirely new yet being eerily familiar and aged. The songs tend to follow the same pace too often and vocalist/bassist Jeff Paulick could vary his beat-heavy delivery a touch more. At that, while many songs feel slightly over-produced ― "Casting Forward" loses some of its testicular girth with staccato hits that are too perfect and abundant ― one can forgive the feeling that no members were in the recording studio at the same time when hearing the beastly chugs and earth-shattering drums of "The Ultimate Sacrifice," "Light a City (Up in Smoke)" and "Through Your Eyes."