Violence Beyond All Reason

Besieged might be the most perfectly named band in metal, except for the slight implication that the band themselves are the ones being besieged. Anyone who has listened to their long-ago debut album, Victims Beyond All Help, knows that is very much not the case. This is music that does not take breaths, does not stop for rest, does not slow down, and shows no mercy. Coming out of wintry Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, Besieged has always sounded a little more South American, a little more European, and occasionally a little more Bay Area than their geography might imply. From any random song one can tell that the brothers who make up the band have listened to plenty of Sepultura's Beneath The Remains, given the raw vocals and brisk thrash tempos on display. But there is a jagged anarchy to their riff construction and frequent tempo changes that suggests they have absorbed plenty from European-style death metal as well. And the occasional shout-along chorus is straight out of the Bay's thrash playbook. Twelve years have elapsed between their debut and this new album. But it takes only a few seconds of the very first track to disabuse anyone of the notion that the passage of time has slowed down the band any, or dulled their attack in the slightest. Violence Beyond All Reason is as perfectly named as the band themselves, in the end: this is pure audio violence, and does the thrash genre proud.