NO RETURN
Inner Madness
(Great Dane Records)
47:42min

Formerly knows as EVIL POWER, French Thrash / Death Metal act NO RETURN have wandered a long way since they started out in 1989, by sharing the stages together with many internationally known, big names (MOTÖRHEAD, SEPULTURA, NAPALM DEATH, CORONER, DEATH ANGEL – among others), going through a noteworthy amount of line-up changes over the years (therefore only having guitarist Alain Clement left from the band’s original line-up) – plus releasing 8 full-length studio albums during all those years, off which their latest one is called "Inner Madness". "Inner Madness", containing 9 tracks all in all, offers a well-executed slice of modern sounding mixture of both Thrash and Death Metal, in which some aggressive parts seem to melt with melodic sections together in a pretty nice way actually. One cannot really deny that NO RETURN do their – sort of Gothenburg-tinged melo-Death / Thrash style very well on their 8th studio outing, managing occasionally to sound a bit like THE HAUNTED on the band’s couple of 1st albums – added with some progressiveness from the days of DEATH’s later era. The guys’ playing undoubtedly is admirably tight and rich song structure-wise – and when they have even gotten a top-notch production for this record too, it comes clear very soon that there’s quite a lot of effort put into "Inner Madness". I like almost everything on here expect those somewhat poorly sung clean vocal parts that in my opinion simply weaken their songs – and not strengthen them one damn bit. For more narrow-minded NO RETURN fans, let me just say that if some of you boys and girls have followed the band right from the band’s 1990 debut album, "Psychological Torment", and would have hoped that they could have returned back to the similar, heavy – and I guess more simplified yet more crushing Death / Thrash style they had on that record, then obviously I can hear a slight sigh of disappointment coming from your direction. "Inner Madness" is basically a modern sounding Death / Thrash Metal record from start to finish – more than anything else really, and it’s enough to satisfy my daily dose of extreme Metal at least. Hope yours too… More at: www.myspace.com/noreturnthrash, www.greatdanerecs.com

Luxi Lahtinen

Luxi Lahtinen

Related reviews / interviews:
NO RETURN - Psychological Contamination (Luxi Lahtinen)
NO RETURN - Machinery (Edouard Vergriete )
NO RETURN - Self Mutilation (Frank Stöver)

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