Review by JD on November 25, 2012.

Folk Metal is something that is steadily building in Quebec Canada and many of this relatively new genre comes from this area of the Great White North. One such band making a splash everywhere is Nordheim, a band that is making people take notice even far from their native Quebec landscapes.

Reminding me sort of Amon Amarth with more pension for folk leanings, these Quebecers seem to fire out on all cylinders with a blistering attack, subtle harmonies and the addition of solid melodies to tie everything together. While the five piece hold their own, they seem to still be fighting to find their own voice rather than struggling with sounding a lot like other Folk Metal acts.

Songs like 'Beer, Metal, Trolls And Vomit' and 'Old Crazy Man' are pure Folk/Viking metal at its very core - heavy, melodically pummeling with the whole berzerker mentality added in for strength. Nordheim are classic styling in this genre, and play it more than just well... yet I was looking for some hinting of originality added in. There were a few subtle hints of originality, but mainly the music followed the basics and never wavered very often... but it still is very fun and well played.

I hope their next album expands so they can mature naturally into what I already see as their massive and inciting possibilities that they could be at the very apex of the Folk Metal heap. I think that we can all watch as Nordheim becomes very prominent as the metal world takes note and making Canadian Metal even more large and in charge on the global onslaught of Metal.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 9
Atmosphere: 9
Production: 8
Originality: 8
Overall: 9

Rating: 8.6 out of 10

Review by Fran on March 26, 2021.

Brazilian thrash is almost a quality assurance mark. The first wave of bands is absolutely fucking legendary -old Sepultura is as good as Slayer or Sodom- and the whole thrash revival thing was fueled worldwide by the success Violator had back in the mid 2000’s. Formed in 2010, Mofo is part of that same wave of bands (even if this album was released in 2020). Heavily influenced by punk rock, Emiliano's vocals do resemble Poney Ret’s indeed. Their proposal is based on fast tupa-tupa beats that decorate the mean riffing inspired by Vio-Lence, musically it doesn’t really bring anything new to the table but it does take you back to the 80’s, which is perfectly fine by me.

The soloing is prodigious, technically superior to 90% of the bands playing this style; pretty impressive, it reminded me a lot of Andreas Kisser's work. There’s an acoustic intro included too. Mid paced breaks are recursively called to give rhythmic variation and make composition more dynamic, well cooked and heavy stuff. The beginning of track 5, 'Sick and Insane', consists of a slap bass / drum fill section that is almost a copy paste from the same idea on Havok's "Conformicide". I get the bassist is very technical too and they wanted to show him off but the lack of originality kind of hurt the track this time.

There's another bass solo on track 3, 'Brothers of Death', better coined though. The bass is not as present on the mix as I would have wanted but at least is listenable when needed. Drumming is ultra tight, fast parts are violent and the fills are rich in groove. Latino percussionists are the best in the world. The recording quality of the master tracks is top notch and the digitized mix is naturally crystal clear but not over polished. The physical compact disc is also very professional and properly fabricated, not homemade. I recommend this to any thrash maniac around the globe!

Rating: 8 out of 10

Review by Michael on February 24, 2021.

A short guitar intro invites the listener to lean back comfortably on the sofa at home. But the gloating laughter and the whirring noise (reminds me somehow of X-Files, when the aliens appear) foreshadows ominous things from the Brazilians Mofo. And - bingo - with the first song 'Adrenaline' it starts. A cool Slayer worship riff and you're already interested in what happens next. The band combines old school thrash with varied melodies and pretty wacky guitar solos. It can go on like this. The tempo is not kept in the next songs so on continuous acceleration, but that does not harm the songs, because as I said, Mofo manage to keep the listener by very varied songwriting on Sick And Insane. You can definitely recognize the band's musical influences (as already mentioned, quite obviously Slayer, but also Megadeth, old Vicious Rumors and newer bands like Warbringer might be sources of inspiration for the guys), but this is definitely not a "copy and paste" release.

On 'Time for War' the former German Reich Minister of Propaganda Goebbels, is allowed to get a few words off his chest (my friend Felix already said a few words about this in his review), but I assume that the band and every listener who is not fluent in German knows what kind of fanatical bullshit this guy is spouting. 'Sick and Insane' is a pretty crass song, which drifts in parts of the vocals and the melody leadership already in death metal realms and also again clear Slayer influences can be recognized. 'Frank' (I refrain from any comment about people named Frank here...) is a song that slowly builds up its tension by increasing the tempo more and more. In addition, in the middle section is a guitar solo that is quite leaned on classical compositions, quite an interesting song that is well worth listening to (sorry Felix)!!! The last track 'Hate and Disgrace' is quite a neckbreaker, which like the opener again breaks through in fast tempo and makes the conclusion of the album quite worthy.

Production-wise there is not much to criticize in my eyes. You can hear all the instruments loud and clear, also the vocals sound powerful and aggressive. Perhaps the production is a touch too dull, but that is sound on a high level. Are there any other points of criticism? Quite, because in my humble opinion the drums are sometimes played a bit too hectic and choppy and also the breaks sometimes still seem a bit too little thought out. But as the debut album of a young newcomer band, you can definitely take your hat off.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

Review by Felix on February 24, 2021.

I don't know if Mofo from Brazil are familiar with Germany's current politicians, but if the quartet wanted to dedicate their debut to them, then Sick and Insane would be an apt name. But even if that's not the case, the title fits the music well. Mofo do not deny their origin. Their music resonates with the typical cruelty of South American thrash bands. Decimator and Violator, as we know, both also from the 212 million country, transport this cutting unbridledness as well. Sure, that feature alone does not make an excellent record. But the lumberjack mentality definitely gives the album a good basic direction.

Fortunately, Mofo actually have other aces up their sleeves. The old school Slayer riffing, very noticeable at the beginning of 'Final Experiment', shapes songs like the strong and rabid 'Brothers of Death' into little diamonds. Without a doubt, Mofo are a band where the typical thrash elements set the tone. But there are also small experiments. The beginning of the title track offers funky tones (but only briefly, don’t get suicidal thoughts), the guitar in an instrumental part of 'Let Them Fall' sounds like an underwater recording and excerpts from a speech in the 'Berliner Sportpalast' of a not entirely unknown former propaganda minister appear in 'Time for War'. Mofo try to represent their genre wholeheartedly without forgetting a note of their own. This succeeds well, especially in the first half of the album. The raw but clear production also contributes to this, endowing the pieces with the necessary portion of aggressiveness and directness.

What can the Brazilian foursome still work on? So far not every riff fits, sometimes you can hear a good amount of vehemence, but a bit too little coherent leads and one or the other song could have been tightened up. These points of criticism are not dealbreakers, showstoppers or album-ruiners, not by far. Nevertheless, it has to be said that especially on 'Frank' a few good sequences get lost in the expressionless sections that dominate here. (But it could also be that I'm biased with this title, because the worst boss I ever had was called Frank, too. A real moron, avoid him!). But even 'Purgatory' can't completely erase the impression that the guys run out of ideas to some extent at the end. It is one of those pieces that actually captures and reflects the aesthetics of thrash all along the line, but still doesn't really detonate.

So Mofo are not unhinging the thrash world and I am probably more affine to European thrash. But the Brazilians have fighting spirit, integrity and energy. The singer doesn't spare the vocal cords with his powerful roar and the guitar, bass and drums will also have been happy when they knew they survived the recording session. Finally, the amigos manage a robust closer. 'Hate and Disgrace' is a final punch in the face and it's good chorus makes it clear that Mofo should write catchy passages more often. But I don't want to end with such bagatelles, because underneath it all, Mofo have put out an energetic, good thrash album. And I’m sure there is potential for more good music.

Rating: 7.4 out of 10

Review by Alex on September 24, 2018.

The two primary outlining factors that comprise a good or even decent speed metal album (for me) are…... well…….. speed and guitar solos. Unfortunately for Outline one key element is missing, that being the guitar solos. Though not the only problem Fire Whiplash is confronted by, the absence of this key entity comes at a huge disadvantage for Outline. Not only does it make Fire Whiplash seem like an insufficient and lazy performance, it questions the band’s passion for the genre if they are genuinely zealous about composing speed metal. For just 22 minutes of material Fire Whiplash cannot be seen as a full length offering. Personally I consider a full length speed metal album to be at least 30 minutes with 35 minutes of playing time being the maximum. 22 minutes of no guitar solos and a few fast songs is not ideally convincing especially for a newly formed band that wishes to make their imprint onto the genre’s slate. I felt as though I was listening to a gore-grind version of speed metal, the kind of gore-grind album that has 20 songs, each baring 1:45 seconds of insipidness. Also one must take into consideration that Outline had released a demo in 2017 titled Fire Whiplash which features 5 of the 8 songs featured on this so called ‘debut full length’. This isn’t a good look for Outline given that only 3 new songs were added to their 2018 Hell’s HeadBangers debut album, those being; “Black Eyed Devil”, “The Assassin” and “Hell Squad” which don’t offer much at all and are not nearly as memorable as “Away From You” and “Lady Teaser”, in which are slow to an extent and can be found on the 2017 Fire Whiplash demo.

The exclusion of guitar solos is unacceptable; not sure if this musical decision materialized subconsciously or whether it was intentional; nevertheless, this absence is unforgivable; It’s like a pizza devoid of cheese or a rainbow without blue, red and green, it just doesn’t work. Doing this only makes the band seem diffident or tentative in that particular field and even places a blemish on the band as a collaborative unit. For it is usually the guitar solos that determine whether or not the music has any coherence particularly within the genre of speed metal.

A promotional video for the track “Lady Teaser” was released in which highlighted the stereotypes as I expected; the alcoholism and hot metal chicks were in full display in all the petite leather lust. I can see why this was necessary, thus given the music on Fire Whiplash is clearly not convincing enough to be labelled as a genuine and competent speed metal album. 

There is one positive take away from Fire Whiplash, that being the vocals of the front woman. As bad as many people think they are, I admire the shit out of them. Her vocals sound very organic and raspy, her mid-range highs have a sort of sexual wailing that I like as though she is about to achieve an orgasm. Hearing her style of screaming got me really hard really fast. They even sound to be veering towards the good cheesy side of Karaoke, especially on the track “Away From You”. As much as I like her vocal delivery there is no way they compensate for the lack-luster overall performance. I cannot score Fire Whiplash highly especially when there are actual speed metal bands such as Evil Invaders, Metalian and Black Magic (Norway) who have exhibited nothing short of brilliance in their musical compositions. As of now Outline is nothing more than a watered down version of speed metal in my opinion, perhaps they can be labelled as a speed core band until they decide to get serious.

Rating: 1.8 out of 10 

Review by Alex on September 24, 2018.

The two primary outlining factors that comprise a good or even decent speed metal album (for me) are…... well…….. speed and guitar solos. Unfortunately for Outline one key element is missing, that being the guitar solos. Though not the only problem Fire Whiplash is confronted by, the absence of this key entity comes at a huge disadvantage for Outline. Not only does it make Fire Whiplash seem like an insufficient and lazy performance, it questions the band’s passion for the genre if they are genuinely zealous about composing speed metal. For just 22 minutes of material Fire Whiplash cannot be seen as a full length offering. Personally I consider a full length speed metal album to be at least 30 minutes with 35 minutes of playing time being the maximum. 22 minutes of no guitar solos and a few fast songs is not ideally convincing especially for a newly formed band that wishes to make their imprint onto the genre’s slate. I felt as though I was listening to a gore-grind version of speed metal, the kind of gore-grind album that has 20 songs, each baring 1:45 seconds of insipidness. Also one must take into consideration that Outline had released a demo in 2017 titled Fire Whiplash which features 5 of the 8 songs featured on this so called ‘debut full length’. This isn’t a good look for Outline given that only 3 new songs were added to their 2018 Hell’s HeadBangers debut album, those being; “Black Eyed Devil”, “The Assassin” and “Hell Squad” which don’t offer much at all and are not nearly as memorable as “Away From You” and “Lady Teaser”, in which are slow to an extent and can be found on the 2017 Fire Whiplash demo.

The exclusion of guitar solos is unacceptable; not sure if this musical decision materialized subconsciously or whether it was intentional; nevertheless, this absence is unforgivable; It’s like a pizza devoid of cheese or a rainbow without blue, red and green, it just doesn’t work. Doing this only makes the band seem diffident or tentative in that particular field and even places a blemish on the band as a collaborative unit. For it is usually the guitar solos that determine whether or not the music has any coherence particularly within the genre of speed metal.

A promotional video for the track “Lady Teaser” was released in which highlighted the stereotypes as I expected; the alcoholism and hot metal chicks were in full display in all the petite leather lust. I can see why this was necessary, thus given the music on Fire Whiplash is clearly not convincing enough to be labelled as a genuine and competent speed metal album. 

There is one positive take away from Fire Whiplash, that being the vocals of the front woman. As bad as many people think they are, I admire the shit out of them. Her vocals sound very organic and raspy, her mid-range highs have a sort of sexual wailing that I like as though she is about to achieve an orgasm. Hearing her style of screaming got me really hard really fast. They even sound to be veering towards the good cheesy side of Karaoke, especially on the track “Away From You”. As much as I like her vocal delivery there is no way they compensate for the lack-luster overall performance. I cannot score Fire Whiplash highly especially when there are actual speed metal bands such as Evil Invaders, Metalian and Black Magic (Norway) who have exhibited nothing short of brilliance in their musical compositions. As of now Outline is nothing more than a watered down version of speed metal in my opinion, perhaps they can be labelled as a speed core band until they decide to get serious.

Rating: 1.8 out of 10