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Scanner: The Judgement
Scanner - The Judgement Debut CD Album Review

Scanner: The Judgement

Traditional Heavy/Speed Metal
4.0/5.0

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Massacre Records
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 17.01.2015

Germany's Scanner has a long history, dating back to the early Eighties, but it's been a sketchy history. It's been one rife with personnel changes and such. A couple of albums in the Eighties, two more in the Nineties, and another two years into the new century. Then nothing, until now, 13 years later the band delivers The Judgement on Massacre Records.

Scanner The Judgement Photo

Scanner

Frankly, this album will make you feel like you warped back to 1986, DeLorean on hand or not. Scanner plays traditional heavy speed metal, bracing and sharp, with lots of riffage, leads, and a pummeling rhythm section driving everything along. Vocalist Efthimios Ioannidis has a true metal style with some surprising versatility.

After one pass, I wanted to suggest that there's an abundance of redundancy here. Most every song is rush of speed, a mountain of riffs, and a flash of guitar solos. Basically, that's a simple definition of classic speed metal. By example, Nevermore, Warlord, The Race, or Pirates, in this sense, are uncompromising examples of the genre. Alternatively, there's the song Known Better, which backs off on the speed going for more moderate and steady heavy metal. A little thicker and slower and it could near doom metal. Eutopia is another moderately paced number marked by a thundering bottom end and some of the sharpest, acid dripping, riffs across the album. Yet, the real surprise may be Battle Of Poseidon, which displays some greater versatility in the arrangement with shifting tempos and a curious, lighter, breakdown after the midpoint. It's not to last, of course, it's this followed by more speed.

I'm guessing for long time fans of Scanner, The Judgement will come as a welcome surprise, something like a "where have they been" surprise. Overall, the album is a strong return for the band, a real showcase of traditional heavy speed metal. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 13 years for a new album.

Scanner - F.T.B.


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In Short

I'm guessing for long time fans of Scanner, The Judgement will come as a welcome surprise, something like a "where have they been" surprise. Overall, the album is a strong return for the band, a real showcase of traditional heavy speed metal.

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