Protector

Protector

Summon the Hordes

High Roller Records

Release date: 26.04.2019

Protector is here to destroy robotic metal music. Considering that they initially began doing demos in the middle of the 1980s, by the time their 1988 debut album Golem and the 1989 album Urm the Mad came out, they were pushing the boundaries of thrash with more speed and harsher vocals than their U.S. and German peers. It makes sense that Protector stand up for the older values of extreme metal. Their 1991 scorcher A Shedding of Skin is just as much death metal as it is thrash metal, especially for the sound of those times.

Eventually returning after years of inactivity, nowadays Protector has been for years on a second life with different personnel. This new album features a very robust sound: guitars, bass, drums and growling. Do not expect things to get melodic. The only little bit of melody available is some of the guitar solos. The drums sound rather thick, saying that they want a sound that is realistic, that approaches the feeling of live drums in concert. The double bass does not sound clicky, suggesting that they went for a realistic sound in that department, too. They are concerned with sounding realistic, like they can pull off these songs live and make them sound rather close to the album versions. This is not a garage recording, though. It sounds professional and good to the fans of old-school thrash, with the truly legendary Harris Johns taking care of the sound engineering work.

The guitars stay on task at all times. Thrashing riffs, and that’s pretty much the story. The vocals are growled, in the style that is aggressive and fast, in a percussive way, as if the drumming and vocals are often matching on the points of impact. Protector is taking care of business with one mission assignment. You come here to Protector to thrash and you’ve come to the right place. The times have changed, the members have changed, the hair is thinner, but the attitude on the album remains the same as in the old times.

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