Scythe - Beware The Scythe (2012)

After the split of Chicago, Illinois metal legends, Usurper in '07, the four remaining members formed two new bands. Jon Necromancer, Joe Apocalyptic Warlord and Carcass Chris formed Bones and released their debut last year, while Usurper founder Rick Scythe created Scythe and released their debut through Primitive Reaction earlier this year.

'Beware The Scythe' is an odd album since it literally offers up various forms of metal and changes from song to song, although all of the songs tend to have an old school vibe surrounding them. You get a lot though, the Celtic Frost vibes are mostly always there, but you can also find plenty of thrash, death, black and even a few doom-ish parts on this LP. 'The Iron Witch' kicks the album off in a high octane thrashing death-ish metal manner that's not too distant from Rick's past work with Usurper, while, 'Mastermind' is a bit more mid-paced, but retains a similar enough sound, but with a sung chorus, rather than anything growled or screamed. The title track is probably my favorite as its quite catchy and fun throughout with a number of rockin' and totally energetic headbangable riffs and even a cool little clearly sung part that just screams pump your fist and headband like a mother fucker, which then leads into a bad ass solo to boot. 'Tyrannical Stranglehold' is another mid-paced number that shows off a few different influences and vocal styles and even has an acoustic guitar present.

Three of the five songs on the other side of LP are remakes of Nightshade songs (Rick's side project) and left overs, which were meant for Usurper, but were never recorded due to the break up. 'Tunguska Death Ray' is another full on thrashy song with black and death metal style vocals that just plain rocks, while 'Opus Dei Of the Dead' and 'Eye of the Crow' sound similar enough, total energy and good vibes, but Opus has a more guttural vocal approach during the chorus that matches up well with the raspier vocals. 'Talons of Steel' is more or less Usurper, obviously, thrashy and in your face, where as, 'Planet of the Humans' is a bit more hard hitting, epic in a way, but it sticks to the same formula and doesn't have the random tempo or genre changes like the other songs.

As a whole, 'Beware The Scythe' is a solid debut effort in my eyes and ears. The vocal, tempo and genre shifts can make it feel like an uneven ride, but between great riffs, killer solos and tons of energy and just simply great song writing the whole thing works out perfectly. Definitely worth checking out for the Usurper fans, as well as those that just dig something new that sounds old.