Prophanity

Stronger Than Steel (Metal Blade)
by Scott Hefflon

Licensed from Blackend, this is the side of Metal Blade I like the most, even though the hordes of suburban metal kids probably don’t flock to black/thrash the way they do Metal Blade standards like Gwar, King’s X, Galactic Cowboys, and the new slew of Fates Warning-inspired prog metal bands I hate worse than an ingrown nail. Prophanity is straight-forward post-Kreator thrash, old-school black metal, the type of noisy evil Necropolis often signs, filled with double-bass thunder, Carcassy vocals, and melodic fretboard flyings (not to be confused with heavy metal soloing, this is superfast scaling and shredding). Not much else can describe the end-to-end brutality and devastation. And the bonus track, as if to make me double back on my un-heavy metal comment, is a melodic, chaotic, dirty, Walls of Jericho Helloweenish number called “Swedish Steel (The Metalist).”
(2828 Cochran St #302 Simi Valley, CA 93065)