Invasion is a four man operation hailing from Michigan City, Indiana. The group formed back in 1989, releasing two full-length efforts shortly after through two different record labels. The band's last effort, Berserk Artillery Barrage, actually hit store shelves back in 2002, and since then, this lesser known Death/Thrash act seemed to slip into obscurity. It's been roughly eight years since we last heard from Invasion, but we now have a new album in our midst from the group, entitled Orchestrated Kill Maneuver. In keeping with the name of the album, the lyrical content seems to be centered around World War II, and there's plenty of atmospheric touches added to the release to really focus in on that, as well as dropped much of it's earlier style for a more sophisticated Swedish Death Metal influence with the only real Thrash being the overall intensity and speed of the riffs being executed (pun intended).
At first glance, the album doesn't really seem like much, but Orchestrated Kill Maneuver takes a little time to kick in, especially for fans of the band's earlier material. Invasion's earlier material was basically just straight forward Death Metal with a little bit of Thrash in it, comparable to the likes of Bolt Thrower, but, eight years down the line, the group has clearly gone a different direction and ushered in a strong Swedish Death Metal sound. At first, this doesn't seem to be anything major, but for the sake of the concept to the album and how it flows, it becomes a huge step. The album starts with "Devil's Garden (Journey Through...)" which is mostly an introductory track that starts things off with a hail of gun fire, both being fired, as well as hitting the ground or their mark. "Bayoneted and Butchered" kicks right in, and actually misleads listeners slightly. The Death Metal sound is there, but lacks some of the Swedish influence for a stronger, more evil Thrash sound that hammers away at the listener like some kind of twisted march to death, and the guitar solo suits the atmosphere of the song very well when the music slows down to accompany it, leading to material that retains the same intensity, but also has a slight Groove influence to the way the guitars are performed, making this track just a non-stop assault like the hail of gun-fire that came the track before it.
Shortly after that track, the album starts to slow down gradually, but interspersed between many of the tracks are more war-based sound effects, prodominantly of gun fire, again, being fired, hitting the target, or not hitting it. While this becomes repetitive, for the faster nature of the material, and the chaotic effect that the Swedish Death Metal influence of the later tracks incorporates into the mix, it actually works out well and doesn't necessarily get old too quick. Instead, it keeps the flow of the album going at a steady pace so that there is never a moment of silence, leaving you to feel as if you are in some twisted Metal warzone, which is where the true beauty of this release shines through. Of course, the material itself is good too, and the tracks are often very intense, despite the speed. "Infinite Waves of Human Flesh" still contains the same consistancy as "Bayoneted and Butchered", though the latter is much faster and chaotic. Both of them, however, do feature really twisted guitar solos that match the chaos the music creates, and gives a very uneasy feeling, though the first few times hearing them will just sound horrible as you have yet to actually reality why they are being performed in such a manner. "Firestorm in Desden", however, breaks the mold of the songs gradually slowing down with it's machine gun guitar work and drumming that is just top-notch and really captures the total madness this war theme presents.
The main issue with Orchestrated Kill Maneuver, however, lies within the production of the music for the album. The effects sound great, having a slightly raw and grainy quality to them, as if hearing them from some kind of Black and White war film, and really just enhancing the World war II aspect of the release. However, the production quality on the music is both traditional, and raw. This may sound confusing, but it makes sense when you listen to it. The production on the instruments themselves sounds typical for a Swedish Death Metal release, right down to the distortion on the guitars and the bite of the snares on the drum kit. This is something that sounds like it came out of a more analog studio then a digital one, and feels rather muddied. While this works out for the music, though it does just make some of the material feel like more of a Dismember gone insane album, the vocals simply come out horrible without any real bite. The vocals wind up being overly distorted, and you can almost hear a wash effect on them at times when the music is more open and forgiving, such as during the build up to the chorus of "War Machine". Half the time, you can't understand the lyrics being said either, and sometimes just sound like mumbled words, as if the vocalist had just woken up and forgot the lyrics to the song. Had these been a little clearer or sharper, and not so overmodulated like an amateurish band trying to sound as gutteral as possible, these really would have stood out in the mix, as it's clear there's some good talent there, but in the end, they just wind up being a wash on the recording.
If Orchestrated Kill Maneuver had a little more originality to it, as well as a better production quality on the vocals, then this album would have been insane. However, though it's not too original, the music itself is still alive and kicking. There are no slow tracks here, but meerly gradualy slowing levels of sonic audio torment. Invasion put together an intense album that matches the intensity of the war-themed effects throughout the album, a way to keep the material from really slowing down and going forward head first like a speeding bullet trained on it's prey. Granted, overtime the war effects can become a little annoying, mostly due to the fact that some of the gunfire effects sound the same. Either way, Orchestrated Kill Maneuver is still a highly impressive combination of Thrash and death Metal, as well as a radical departure from their earlier material, and it would have suffered if it weren't for the World War II conceptual elements thrown in throughout the album.
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