The Kandidate - Until We Are Outnumbered

January 8, 2010

Reviewer: Chris

Good grooving pit serenades alongside thrash assaults that render you happily violated.

Now that I’ve gotten the obligatory cliché-laden catch phrase out of the way, I can concentrate on a review that will sing the praises of a damn fine band. Denmark’s The Kandidate has issued its first full-length, aptly titled Until We Are Outnumbered, courtesy of Napalm Records. It’s a hard-trudging mixture of hardcore-influenced thrash with modern death metal edges. One second you can be moshing in a finely-crafted circle of reckless abandon and the next you’re hearing S.O.D.-type ‘core slamming into your head. The album is a damn good example of how the meshing of two or more metal formulas can, if treated correctly, actually render a great metal CD. 

Not quite in the line of fire with Pantera for most I’m sure, but for my personal dollar I enjoy The Kandidate more than Pantera. This album seems to offer no slow-down in its simplicity. That is to say that however unable a band of today is in reinventing the steel (pun intended), the least the band can do is to offer all of its talented resources to making a semi-decent album. The Kandidate does not restart a new era for heavy metal music, but does use all of its collective influences to make sure your head splits wide open upon audible entry.  

The songs are catchy and far superior to anything that the current mallcore trend could even hope to offer. This is the formula that those kids can’t capture on their best day: harmonious violence that only a true metal band could deliver.

The band consists of J on vocals, Tvede on guitars, KB handling bass and Nik providing the background hammering. The Scandinavian death scene has been given another shot in the arm with an awesome quartet of guys that have one hell of a ride in front of them. From top to bottom, the album is a half-hour ride that doesn’t get boring or turn into drivel at any point. J’s vocals are precisely what hardcore/thrash has been missing out on for a while now, and Billy Milano himself might raise a glass to these guys! As for standouts…the entire CD has me going, but “Distress and Decay” and “Give up All Hope” are two tracks that inspire even the oldsters among the metal scene to slam into one more able body for old time’s sake.

All in all, Until We Are Outnumbered is a great addition to any metal library, my friends. If you can see these guys live and not create a pit worthy of 1986 Slayer, then something’s wrong in the state of Denmark….

Release Date: February 9, 2010
Label: Napalm Records   

TRACK LISTING

1. Strength Through Diversity
2. Give Up All Hope
3. Shut 'Em Up
4. Distress and Decay
5. In Hell
6. ...We Conform to the Unrighteous
7. Live a Lie
8. The Kill
9. Enemy
10. Yours Truly

Total playing time: 32:42

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