MEFISTO
2.0.1.6
(Vic Records)
43:25min

This is by far the must difficult review I’ve ever made. I remember when I bought the CD compilation entitled "The Megalomania Puzzle" back in 2014, I was so excited to put it inside the CD player and listen to that fiery and unpolished Thrash / Black everyone praised over decades, and it was something marvellous, so unique and raw, as many people say: it was the real deal, old school as you can get. MEFISTO has been known and followed for their early demos and for a good reason, they are unique. So everyone was wondering what the band would do when they finally put out their first full length album in over 3 decades. So here we are, 32 years after the band was put together, and now with a full album under their belt. I mean…, 32 years, that’s a lot of time (I’m 31), the band started when I wasn’t even born, people change, music changed, and for MEFISTO a change in their sound was also inevitable. "2.0.1.6: This Is the End Of It All… The Beginning Of Everything…" is the full name of this album, and trust me, the title is not lying, this is the end. Forget about everything you might have heard of MEFISTO, this is a new band, with a fresh sound, and fresh… is not a good word on this one. The album starts with a nice intro that gave me some hope of a great sounding album, production wise is good, but the songs… ,the structure…, the vocals…, everything is so… different. This is not old school Metal as we were all expecting, this is some sort of hybrid of basic Speed Metal (EXCITER, RAGE) mixed with some very poorly executed Bay Area Thrash riffing (VIO-LENCE, FORBIDDEN, DEATH ANGEL) and the vocals remind me of some sort of Hardcore-ish vocals (AGNOSTIC FRONT, MACHINE HEAD, BIOHAZARD). I waited until track 1 was done to check again if I was listening to MEFISTO from Sweden and not some other act with the same name. After the second track I just started to do other duties in parallel (sending a few mails and having some snacks), the player stopped and guess what ? I couldn’t remember a single thing about it, not a single track, not a single chorus, nothing was stuck. I played it a couple of times and I couldn’t find anything interesting in the entire album to catch my attention, I’m sad and disappointed. There you go, I can’t say much about this album for one simple reason, it’s a one way easy ride with no curves, no turns, no nothing, it didn’t grab me by the neck begging for more, it was the opposite. I might be exaggerating here, so go pay a visit to the label, order the album and check it yourself, just for the sake of buying the first album of this legendary act you might want to give it a try. For me, this is not the Thrash / Black I was looking for. Check it out at www.facebook.com/pages/mefisto-sweden/234630006720804, www.vicrecords.com

Mauricio “Rusty” Sanchez

Mauricio "Rusty" Sanchez

Related reviews / interviews:
MEFISTO - Megalomania / The Puzzle... (Julián "Missing In Action" Núñez)
MEFISTO - The Megalomania Puzzle (Mirco Szymyslik)
MEFISTO - The Truth (Frank Stöver)

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