Shamefully, not a lot of metal bands that emerge from the Danish dunes pass by my ever expanding radar. This may be because there simply aren’t enough quality Danish bands out there, or just because it’s just me being under the impression of just that. This deadly thrash/groove quintet from Aarhus is new to me, and hasn’t been around for that long. This is only their second output following their critically acclaimed debut Storm the Walls which saw the light of day in 2007. They received lots of great reviews, and Massacre Records found that this is still something to spit their cash into, and are therefore releasing Rewakening later this month. In addition to the positive reviews their debut got, they also won a Danish award as the best live band of 2008. Certainly something to keep a keen eye on, or?

As most new thrash-bands try to reinvent the main thrash movement of the eighties, The Burning take a slightly different approach. Instead of going for the obvious Bay Area-style, they’re adding much more groove into their music, and are rather trying to recreate the influential style of groove metal, and especially Pantera. The down-tuned riff attack from the lone axe-man Rasmus Norman contains lots of hooks, simple yet groovy chugs, and a touch of melody and attitude. He’s not reinventing anything nor is he trying to. Groove metal is hard to sit through for several listens; however, he manages to keep my ear at base to a certain extent. There are however parts here that could’ve been grabbed right out of your typical Pantera-song, like the intense overtones on Carnivora that resembles Cemetary Gates. Not the biggest problem, but when you’re getting nearly fifty minutes of non-compromising attitude things will get similar, and dip into boredom. On the other hand, due to the lack of solos here, this gets somewhat easier to sit through because the few leads he does are not sounding good at all, as most of it is pretentious crap and ruins the fun of the occasionally awesome riffing.

This is soaked in undisputed attitude. Vocalist Johnny Haven’s rabid and scraping screams are not unlike Phil Anselmo in terms of style, and not that far off as far as quality goes either. He mixes them up with deeper death-like growls which add a desired amount of variation without dipping into the tempting core-ish waters. He fits the music and wraps his dominating voice around the rest of the music and carries it forward. The straightforward and simple rhythm-work is intense, and they work great along with the fairly creative guitars to create a wall of energy that at least tries to wipe out every obstacle in its way. There are a few flaws here, and although not that many, they’re clearly visible in the musical picture. The slower churning songs like Eight Legged Omen lacks the catchiness and the overall enjoyable crisp most of the other songs has, and the guitar-solo at the end of that song isn’t even worth mentioning. They’re doing great for the most part when they’re sticking to the fast and aggressive riffs that can easily engage a headbanging-session. Songs like Repentance (Burned On The Stake) and the opening It Came From the North keeps visiting my playlists because of the lovely intensity. The riffs sound less forced there even though they’re simplistic. The other obvious thing that bothers me is that they seem to blow their load after the first half of the album and the second half is more or less filler with a few exceptions.

All in all, Rewakening is a pretty damn enjoyable follow-up from my fellow Scandinavians. They’ve still got stuff to work on and the overall audible grooviness may spawn some negativity and does indeed make this hard to sit through for the first couple of spins. When you’ve grown used to it though, you’ll pump your fists for some songs, and completely ignoring the others. Inconsistency is a audible problem, but I’m sure that these guys are more than able to deal with that. Recommended for fans of solid groove metal, thrash and even metalcore.