Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Date: November 19th, 2021
Well, before I’ll start to write this review I have to share with you some personal stuff. I thought the first time era is behind me and there’re still only quite old memories of that, but it seems I was wrong. The proof of my ignorance in this point is just right here, coz this is my very first, but surely not last, review for Abaddon. I have many things I wanna review as quickly as possible, but to celebrate my debut I choose the last album of Thrash Metal legend. It means, on the other hand, some difficulties for me, too. It’s about all and everyone knows very well how the San Francisco based band plays and actually is one of the pioneers and creators of this way of playing thrash metal. There’s also no one who doesn’t know when they were born and so on.
So it means I need to concentrate only on music. And since there aren’t some huge differences between what we can listen to on “Persona Non Grata” and several earlier albums of this band that’s not too easy to do, I need to write at least A4 of text. But I always was thinking: harder as better or no pain, no game or… Anyways, the point is that I never even tried to avoid difficult situations, so… OK, the end of this nonsense speaking and let’s finally start the real story!
You can find on new Exodus’ masterpiece twelve songs which take a little more than an hour. Of course, as I wrote before, even if not directly, this is classic Bay Area Thrash Metal we have to do with here. And I think I don’t have to write anything more, because everyone knows what it means. At least I can’t imagine there’s someone who doesn’t know what the term I used two lines above means. By the way, the “problem” with this full-length is it’s impossible, and not only for me because all I know have the same “difficulties”, to make a choice of the best composition. All of them are just great in my opinion and that’s it! Yeah, some of them maybe take me a little more than other ones, but I’d need to listen to “Persona Non Grata” at least one thousand times to make this choice and it’d still be a choice by force.
So I very much prefer to put all twelve tracks into the category “the best song of the album”. I simply love everything I hear here from the beginning of “Persona Non Grata” to the last moments of “Antiseed” (including short, let’s call them, intros and outros before and after some songs)! They’re all on the same very high level, in every one of them there happens a lot and it is impossible to be bored even in a very short moment. It is also impossible for me to sit down and listen to this music calmly. So that’s some kind of torture to write the review for me. You know, it’s extremely hard and actually almost impossible to make headbanging and write in the same time.Especially if you wanna it has some sense what you writing.By the way, as soon as possible, what means to have enough of these stupid cash, I’ll order this on CD as it should be. And surely this album, as well as Exodus itself and their other silver disks, will never be persona non grata in my cd-player. Even contrary to be honest! Anyhow do I need to write a sentence like: “I recommend you this album from the bottom of my heart”? I don’t think so, even if I actually did it just a few seconds before. I somehow doubt my enthusiasm is so huge only because of the fact I always was, am and will be a big fan of Exodus. And, what will sound strange perhaps, I hope those of you who haven’t heard this stuff yet will don’t believe in my words and get “Persona Non Grata” to check out if I’m not lying. It’s a great album! And I don’t care in what format you’ll listen to it! Well, I always will choose physical copies, but this is maybe because I’m as old as I’m and at some points I don’t wanna accept world changes. Anyways, I’m sure you’ll fall in love with this album as I did!
