:: All Out War - Assassins In The House Of God

All Out War

Long before the genre tag metalcore was thought of, there was a little known genre called crossover. Crossover acts, unlike the endless steam of metalcore acts on the scene today, genuinely blurred the lines between thrash metal and hardcore, which in essence gave the band a widespread (crossover) appeal to several scenes. Although names such as Nuclear Assault, Agnostic Front, S.O.D., D.R.I., Cryptic Slaughter, Crumbsuckers and Corrosion Of Conformity are commonly renown with the crossover genre, another name worthy of putting into the same league is All Out War. Founded as far back as 1991, the New York based act is credited as one of the founding fathers of the metalcore genre with its debut album ‘Truth In The Age Of Lies’ in 1996, and the two releases (1998’s ‘For Those Who Were Crucified’ and 2003’s ‘Condemned To Suffer’) through Victory Records.
After a lengthy four years of silence, vocalist Mike Score reunited with original guitarist Jim Antonelli and bassist Erik Carillo, and with the aid of long time friends in guitarist Jim Bremer and drummer Lou Iuzini, rediscovered the magic within All Out War, and duly re-entered the studio once again for their long overdue fourth full length release ‘Assassins In The House Of God’.

Stylistically, there’s not a real lot of change between All Out War’s sound four years ago and today, but while that generally means that a band has progressed little in today’s hardcore/metal scene, it only means that All Out War has once again come up with another classic crossover album worthy of its underground fame. As evident with the accompanying cover artwork and the song titles, ‘Assassins In The House Of God’ sees Score and Carillo tackle the hypocrisies and pitfalls of religion, with the scathing ‘Curtain Call For The Crucified’ taking no prisoners in any shape or form. Score is in exceptional form as he spits out blasphemous message, while the return of Antonelli ensures that the thrashened attack of All Out War is ever present. For the remaining ten tracks, ‘Assassins In The House Of God’ never falls below the standard All Out War set for themselves right from the beginning, with tracks such as ‘Politics Of Apathy’ (featuring a guest appearance from lyricist/vocalist Rich O’Brien), the mid-paced title track ‘Assassins In The House Of God’, the thrash based ‘In The Arms Of Annihilation’, ‘The Angels Of Genocide’ and the closer ‘And All Shall Suffer’ all clear cut winners on this stunning release.

All Out War has yet to witness the success and exposure it has deserved throughout the years, but I can only hope that, with ‘Assassins In The House Of God’, the band will finally get the attention it deserves, and help reignite the passion of making music in the vein of true crossover at the cost of the current tired and generic metalcore sound.