Label: Independent
Release date: February 28th, 2025
Time to go back to Central Europe for a while, I guess. Actually, I think our visit in this part of the so-called Old Continent will take a little longer, because I have a few bands in line. And some of them are from countries whose scenes, to put it mildly, aren’t too well-known. And the first example for it, even in my motherland, is Ukraine. Quite near (something like eighteen kilometers) the border with Poland is located in a city called Lviv. There live more than seven hundred thousand people, so this is as clear as the sun. Some of them are metalheads. And since we’re in general active individuals who take care of the scene and quite often decide to be an active part of it. That’s what Alex and Andre decided to do in 2015 when Overbound was born, and continue their music adventure three years later, when two other members decided to leave the band. Then they changed the name to the present one, by the way. And it seems this new period in the ensemble’s history is more productive, because “Death Before Dishonor” is Surgical Invasion’s second full-length.
The same like in cases of the debut album (“Aggression”) and EP (“Malignant Devastation”), I don’t count, what’s typical in my case, one songs’ singles as regular stuffs, guys released it independently in form of digital version, on portal dedicated to spreading and selling music, where the most of bands and labels have their profiles. It contains ten original tracks, some of them are just re-mastered ones taken from both earlier works, tracks. On some of the most well- known and the oldest portal dedicated to spreading videos, we’re also able to listen to two covers of speed/thrash metal Gods – one German (“Napalm on the Mourning”) and one Canadian (“Take This Torch”). In my opinion this and not other choice absolutely wasn’t a coincidence. I tell you even more, it perfectly reflects what we’re able to listen to on “Death Before Dishonor”. And to be honest, I could end my writings at this point, because in these songs created by our Ukrainian metal brothers you can hear strong influences mentioned before, even if as I always used to do – indirectly, schools of playing thrash metal. That’s a specific mix of German and American, of course old-school, styles. Guys took the best of both schools and neatly put it together. And since I deeply doubt there are individuals among the readers who have no idea what I’m talking about, I think developing the topic and getting into details is completely unnecessary – it’s pouring from the empty into the void or, if you wish, pouring the water. Of course, I can hear here also some touches, and they’re not too subtle, of other sub-genres of metal. But on the other hand, it doesn’t take place too often and is only something added and quite subtle. So, almost all the time you have here sharp as, nota bene, razors riffs, rhythm drumming, characteristic hoarse vocalizations, but also here and there a little bass tricks, something we can call solos or slower fragments. To make a long story short, you’ll find here everything you should expect from such creativity.
So, all thrashers know extremely well what to do, doesn’t it? By the way, I hope my words are read also by someone who has a label specializing in such a variation of our beloved music. “Death Before Dishonor” is a full-face album and it’d be really a pity if it didn’t see the light of day also in the physical version(s). A large part of us, old-school maniacs (what isn’t necessarily age related), is attached to CDs, cassettes and LPs as well.
