Review Summary: One last charge of musical brutality before the engines run dry.
By the time Holy Moses’s sixth record “Reborn Dogs” made its appearance, thrash metal has already been swept away by the tides of other musical genres like grunge and alternative rock. Bands that infused the original Bay Area sound with death metal (Demolition Hammer or Sadus) provided the swansongs, most bands split up and even the big ones had to adapt or change their music to survive. In this musical climate sticking out the sound of the 80’s was anything but a life insurance and while Holy Moses were certainly brave for their loyalist attitude, unfortunately that didn’t translated well enough for their future.
Coming off from their most musically accomplished record “Terminal Terror”, this is an album that manages to carry the angry and intensity of their past work, but also shows crystal clear signs of musical fatigue and a band that’s running out of ideas. The dark, gloomy atmosphere and the varied riffing of the previous record is gone, what we get here a clear attempt to return to the straightforward aggression of “Finished with the Dogs”. The results however are quite middling and a major stepdown in overall quality.
Let’s get the good stuff first. Yes, the band sounds pissed off and in-your-face just as much as any of their other records, delivering fast and intense riffing of most of the songs. The sound is actually pretty great, with the guitars are heavy, the bass is given an extra dose of juice and Sabina Classen continues to be one of the most effective voices in the genre by giving a perfect vocal accompany to the musical savagery. It’s only unfortunate that the actual musical material that often falls short of accomplishment.
Because when it comes to the songs, “Reborn Dogs” is only spearheaded by a few hard-hitting excellent tracks and mostly bogged down by a bunch of entirely generic fare which for all of their aggression pretty much spin into one ear and spurt right out of the other. The highlights include the death/thrash hammerings of “Decapitated Mind” and „Reverse”, the punkish “F*** You” and the catchy headbanger “Deaditcate”. These songs make a little bit up for the more boring and non-engaging tracks, however these good track are few and far between to create a really strong album. Another thing that bothered me is the notable lack of guitar solos, especially on the first half of the album. Given that Andy Classen’s lead guitar skills were always top notch this is a creative move that is rather puzzling for me.
For all its authenticity and good intentions, “Reborn Dogs” is easily one of the band’s weakest efforts. The title might just have been a statement of the band's commitment to remaining honest to the genre that birthed them, but aside from the base level ability to get the head banging, the bland notation accounts for it being the least interesting album since their debut. After this one, it was all downhill for the Aachen group, leading to the inevitable demise.
