Although there are many bands with the name RAPTURE this band from Greece is without doubt the best of the bunch. I already knew them from their first release on Witches Brew Records, and this second album shows the right amount of maturity a band develops from their debut to their second album. Their style is still intact, a very fast and aggressive form of Death / Thrash Metal with a lot of emphasize on the Thrash Metal elements. DARK ANGEL, SEPULTURA, MERCILESS and early KREATOR are the names that come to mind while listening to this album, that as soon as it starts grabs you by the throat to never let you go until the last breath. Also it is very good to have an album where the bass is loud in the right amount that makes the band to have a more present and organic rhythmic section as it does here. Also, I can hear some bits of good old styled Death / Grind influences here and there, thus making it a much more variated album than many other similar bands in style. The band is very creative within a limited genre as proven in a song like ‘Taken By Apathy’ where they show quite many variations in speed, rhythms and vocals, infusing them with wicked melodies that even more experienced bands are not able to come up with. At times the intensity and very good riffs found in here reminded me a lot of the heroes in MORBID SAINT (the vocals are also quite similar, maybe a bit less high pitched). And even if this is a very fast paced record, it does not sound too similar from song to song as some other bands tend to do. I find that the riffs are also very dynamic and the changes they do in the same song are done with class and while keeping the dark aura intact, they do add those wicked melodies only bands in command of the style are able to conjure, like in the excellent ‘Quintessence Of Lunacy’. A very solid effort which grows on you after every listening and for sure one of the best albums in the style in the past few years. Add to that a magnificent cover art and there is no reason not to get this one at the speed of death! www.facebook.com/thrashrapture, www.memento-mori.es