(c) Salome Bourgois
Even after four decades, thrash is and remains indestructible. Praetor prefer to dedicate themselves to the old Bay Area school around the Big Four, when the genre was through the roof in the mid-80s. The quartet consists of musicians from Luxembourg and France who, in addition to various bands of their own, have played together in various tribute formations for years and have been doing things together under this name since 2019. Their first album is called plain and moving „Praetor“.
The 36 minutes go forward without frills and audibly don’t feel like making compromises. “No Return” opens the record with furious energy, with high tempo, with powerful riffing. Hugo Centeno’s aggressive, powerful vocals dictate what’s happening, in the second half the quartet almost rolls over. The idiosyncratic melodic opening plus guitar solo in the subsequent “Move On” takes things to a completely different conclusion at first, slows down a bit for the main part, and above all strives for nasty malice. Here the primordial Thrash soup collides with an attempted NWOBHM anthem, which exudes a curious and exciting fascination.
In general, this debut has many interesting ideas in its luggage. Comparatively straight Thrashers like “Precious Time” meet the reduced complexity of “United”, which packs the ideas of a seven-minute hit in less than half the time. On the one hand, a more epic approach would have been interesting, on the other hand, the muscular sprint can entertain through several small parts. “Mass Extinction” actually takes its time at first, just to get really rough. Especially the furious double-bass entry makes listening and seeing go by, but the final act with melodic approaches and another solo is also fun.
Compact, uncompromising, impenetrable: Praetor take a deep breath and only think about possible consequences afterwards. The Franco-Luxembourgish quartet clearly has what it takes to make sophisticated XXL tracks, but instead they compress. This amazes at first, but makes you more and more in a good mood, because the dynamics of this first album are entertaining. The pioneering spirit of the first big thrashers is definitely resonating here, just played even harder and more directly. As a debut, “Praetor” is incredibly fun and gives the brute breakwater. At the same time, we can already eagerly await where the journey will take us. There’s a lot of potential slumbering beneath the surface here.
Rating: 8/10
Available from: 03/10/2023
Available through: Metal East Productions / Barhill Records (Cargo Records)
Facebook: www.facebook.com/praetorthrash
Category: Magazin, Reviews