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Once you get past the remarkable weediness of their name, Dew-Scented have consistently proved themselves to be reliable wavers of the modern thrash flag. Released to commemorate 20 years of active service, Insurgent amounts to a generous career synopsis told via new material, live tracks and a smattering of telling cover versions.
If anything has held the Germans back from scaling the modern metal ladder it must surely be their somewhat myopic musical approach, but the newly minted Confronting Entropy and Guided By The Dead Light suggest that Dew-Scented have more tricks up their sleeves than past works have suggested. Similarly, a cover of Brazilian death thrashers Incubus’s Sadistic Sinner blazes with a strength and precision that belies the band’s perennial journeymen status.
Of the seven live tracks here, the breakneck Turn To Ash is the obvious highlight, but the rest provide an enticing glimpse of what a powerful live act this lot can be. Meanwhile, covers of Prong’s Steady Decline and Genocide Superstars’ Superstar Destroyer add a welcome dash of white-knuckle frivolity.
