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Dienamic was formed by Stein-Odin Johannessen (guitar) and Gustav H. Lindquist (vocals) in 2009 They recorded their first EP in 2010, their debut album ‘Surfing The Apocalypse’ in 2012, second album ‘Afterlife’ was recorded in April 2014, mixed and mastered during summer 2014 and is out now.
’Afterlife’ opens with ‘The Reaping’ with a introduction to the neck snapping riffs that are the dominating feature across the entirity of the album. Pacing drums kick in and bass enter the fray settling into a rhythm with a good pace and groove. This track gets you bobbing along, no matter where you are, you will not be able to deny the pulsating groove and rough, harsh thundering vocals!
Moving to ‘Innocent Gun’, there is very little change from the proceedings in ‘The Reaping’. With only a slight change in the pace, and the same song structure, I was left curious to see if they play It safe across the board on the album…..
‘Revolution For Nothing’ opens with a terrifying riff, Jorgen’s drumming, fast and brutal, with double-blast beats throughout, framed with heavy pounding bass lines. The vocals on this track are heavy and aggressive, following along with the entire character of this track… BRUTAL, AGGRESSIVE AND BLISTERING. A thundering opening riff on ‘Where God Feeds’ ends leaving you hungry for more, I just wish this song was longer, as it feels as though it gets stronger, and more aggressive during the progression of the 3 minutes! My favourite track on this album is ‘Dance With The Devil’, opened by Stein-Odin, followed by Jorgen’s drumming, things settle into another riff-based rhythm, really topping off the song’s structure. This is fast moving, with core elements of old school thrash throughout. Raw and uncompromising, whiplash inducing, guitar riffs, fist pumping breakdowns… just what every Metalhead needs in the car, pit or whilst plotting world domination.
Things change again with the next track. The brutality is lost, and replaced with slower, groovier riffs. The vocals are still blistering, although I almost feel that with the technicality of this song, it could happily stand as an instrumental piece. Then there’s the extremely savage ‘Generation Reboot’, which begins with insanely fast, pounding drumming and equally fast/pounding bass and guitar. The pace and bone-curdling, head splitting nature of this track is endless, it made me smile for sure! The album is a delight to listen to, with a varied selection of Arctic Death/ New school and Old school Thrash apparent across the board, driving it through into the album’s title track. This reminds me of Slayer, but with a groovier melody section, breaking up the head-smashing chugging, and it is a fantastic song for showing the diversity of the album. In all, It’s a good track that consists of power and rhythm. It is a peak of interest, and makes you go back to the beginning to see if you missed anything with this track being so apparently different.
The end of this album is the creatively named ‘The End’. This is another powerful track, with a combination of guitar melodies and face melting riffs. It is quite a long track for the genre, running for just over 7 minutes with a “…to be continued” fade out from the guitar track closing proceedings.
The simple sum up of this album? It is a must listen. It is savage, but groovy enough for you to shake your hips to, as you break your neck with a Herbal Essences-infused helicopter or 5. Pacing, yet graceful in its flow. It oozes the confidence of an old school Thrash album, but has this right now groove and melody. The only downfall I can possibly find (and I searched hard) was that the bass is momentarily lost in the mix on a couple of tracks, be it from the thundering drumbeats or the skull-crushing guitars… or it may even be the mix itself.
Clearly, this means ’Afterlife’ is a definite ’listen to’ for any thrasher. I will be hunting them down, when they tour the UK, if only to see if I can hear that basstrack throughout!
A very deserving 9/10. Buy it!
Review by: Amy Sterriker
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