Criminal is originally a Chilean band. Nowadays the band members are scathered around the globe. White Hell is their sixth full-length album. Their last album Sicario made a big impression on a lot of critics, so I was curious to what their newest album would bring. Sicario was released in an entirely different setting. The thrash wave, that is overflooding the market nowadays, was then just in its infancy, and well-written thrash albums were hard to come by. So it´s interesting to see how this album holds its own in the more competitive thrash metalscene of 2009.

Criminal plays a form of thrash metal that has traces of old Sepultura in it mixed with some early Machine Head and some death metal influences. They play their thrash mostly in a mid tempo pace with an occasional change of tempo.

 

Of course this type of thrash metal has been played many, many times before and Criminal isn´t original whatsoever, but they execute this style very well. Anton has a convincing throat and the rhythm section is tight. The guitarists play nice riffs and solos, without being groundbreaking in that department.

 

Naturally I have some points of criticism. Criminal doesn´t use many pace changes in their songs. As aforementioned, they most of the time use a mid-tempo pace, resulting in songs that sometimes sound too similar. Also Anton has a convincing and aggressive throat, but it´s a bit one-dimensional. This makes the songs sound even more alike! And that’s too bad, because if you listen to the songs separately from each other, they all have impact. If you listen to the album as a whole though, the impact of some songs are lost.

 

White Hell is a nice thrash album, though not overly original. They hold their own compared to the newer thrash bands and even betters a lot of them, but the real test will come with the new releases of Megadeth, Evile and Warbringer this year. 2009 could be a real good year for thrash metal!