Mandator
Perfect Progeny

Listening to Dutch death metal bands, you immediately notice that the guitars sound very dry and abrasive, a constant grinding that goes za-za-za-za za-za-za-za za-za-za-za without mercy or prisoners, all the bands that come to mind: Pestilence (woe to not mention them first), Gorefest, Sinister, and Asphyx, especially Asphyx!

The beautiful thing is that the same sound is found in Perfect Progeny by Mandator. And who are they? One of the most interesting and forgotten European thrash bands, Dutch to be precise. Pioneers then? Let's see!

The second album (third if you consider the first released as Mysto Dysto) already looks different at first glance: a still life on the cover, with objects with human faces, in the calm of a domestic kitchen and with a skull peeking out from the microwave. Beautiful and disorienting, moreover it reminds me of the Gremlins. And the music? Also disorienting compared to the previous Initial Velocity: where it was always balancing between Helloween-style speed and European thrash, this one is pure thrash. The old singer Peter Meijering leaves the band and guitarist Marcel Verdurmen takes over the microphone; no more melodic lines, but an aggressive style reminiscent of a less deep and more acidic Chuck Billy. The riffs, however, are a constant and frenzied assault: za-za-za-za za-za-za-za za-za-za-za without compromises which unfold in long progressions, the songs are always around six to seven minutes and only ease up occasionally, in which the group indulges in almost deranged detours (Coition Interruptus for example), otherwise, there's no reprieve! And to be fair, this stasis is also the album's limitation. The style isn't that innovative for an album from 1989, which unfortunately didn't lead to commercial success for the band.

Instead the raw and at times naive Initial Velocity, despite many flaws, expressed much more personality in my opinion. If you’ve never listened to Black Rose, please do so, you won't regret it. Between the two albums, I will always choose the first one, already reviewed here, but it would be a mistake to ignore Perfect Progeny.