BITTERNESS is a German band, that formed way back in 2001 and this is their eighth full length. The music itself is an energetic form of Thrash, inspired by later era DESTRUCTION (even vocally there is some sort of similarity to Schmier), newer TESTAMENT and some mid era SEPULTURA. The production is very good and with over 20 years of experience it is no surprise that the execution is also very good. Lyrically speaking, they deal with many real life topics and rebellion against modern life. There is even the presence of Gerre, the vocalist for TANKARD, in the song ‘High Sobriety’, so also the band takes their approach with humour. With so many releases, I was curious to listen to more, and it is no surprise that the style has changed very little, if probably they were more Thrash / Death in the first albums (which I do like a bit more), but they are firmly rooted in Thrash, of corpse the German one. They have some nice riffs here and there, but I guess for me the style is becoming a bit saturated. If you like some old school Thrash with some more modern touches, this is not bad. I can even say that compared to the bands that influenced their sound, this is actually on the same level as their latest offerings, just a different band. Oh, and I found two tributes in this release. One is the obvious one, with the album title, the other you will find watching their lyric video for the song ‘WWH8’. They end up with a MISFITS cover, so to remind us not to take things so serious and have fun. Isn’t that life after all? www.facebook.com/bitternessthrash, www.facebook.com/guclabelmailorder