Fatal Embrace - Dark Pounding Steel (2006)

   Fatal Embrace is haunting the German thrash metal scene since the early '90s as one of it's less known, and wildest bands. Similar to many of their coetaneous bands, their full-lenght debut release was manifested only at the end of the decade, so they also haven't partaken much from the first great wave of extreme metal.
   "Dark Pounded Steel" was their third full-lenght album, on which an already well experienced band could be heard. Compared to their earliest releases the musical and sound development is quie spectacular. The good old dirty sounding thrashing turned heavier, and therefore the border of thrash/death metal seemed closer than ever. The band didn't keep their influences in secret, and those are showing through on the basic perspective of thrash metal. The Death cover song is one thing, but in the followings quite surprising references are there to find, that are reminding to Sarcófago (the "Laws of the Scourge" era) or to Sabbat. But basically nothing shocking happened, the band always seemed to sympathize with the dark toned concept of Slayer, and all the followings could be deducted from this point whether they are direct references or cioncidental. However this made the album not only nostalgic, but also summarized the thrash related well made experiments of the late '80s/early '90s embedded into modern sound quality.