Fatal Embrace - Legions of Armageddon (2002)

   Even though Fatal Embrace have formed in the early '90s, they had to wait for an album release until 2000, way longer than how it could have been expected from a German thrash metal band. And probably their late breakthrough took part in the reasons why they became a lesser known German thrash band.
   Their second album "Legions of Armageddon" was built from various influences. The inspiration came by Bay Area thrash metal bands (Metallica included) seems dominant in their music, but they keep switching to the "darker path" by quite evident Slayer references. Their main concept and imagery is also closer to this direction. Some of their songs (like "Trapped in a Violent Brain" for instance) could be the definition for the term Slayer rip-off song. And on the side of the band's late arrival, their intense ripping off tendencies could have been the other possible reason why the band was kept in deep underground status. Not if that really counted in Germany (or if it would still count), since Kreator also wasn't famous about being genuine, but so evident rip-offs are often less tolerated by the audiences. Not to mention that thrash metal has quite narrow borders, and it's more than difficult to not sound like one of the big names of the style. And it seems clear that Fatal Embrace didn't bother themselves much about the whole thing, they just played what they liked and enjoyed to play. However, by their basically whole thrash metal genre covering influences, Fatal Embrace did their best to offer wider diversity according to thrash metal bands in general. "Legions of Armageddon" became an enjoyable record that kinda summarizes all aspects of the style that showed up during the '80s, and could sound pretty nostalgic for the fans of thrash metal.