Once, Victory Records was a pure hardcore label with respected acts on it but they started to built up a label that features more than just hardcore. They recruited some emo and chaos core bands and became a label with a wide range of variety.

This time they come with a CD of Premonitions of War. A record that will lay everything to waste that comes across it. The record only lasts 26 minutes, but they’re blasting 12 tracks in those 26 minutes. Pure slaughter. There are 2 tracks of 5 minutes and more, the rest is 2 minutes or less.

Musically, it’s in the vein of Norma Jean, Remembering Never, Symphony In Peril and sort alike bands. There is also a death metal feeling in this music, maybe also because Erik Rutan (of Morbid Angel fame) produced the album. It only adds to the brutality of this record. Where Norma Jean and Remembering Never sometimes write songs over 6 minutes, Premonitions Of War keeps it short. Just to the point. Only the already mentioned 2 songs (“Cables Hum Overhead” and “Black Den”) are slower, but it gives you some time to breathe.

Only, with a song like “Cable Cums Overhead” I really can’t do anything. It sounds like a song from the Dutch industrial project Sons From The Rain. Mechanical and industrial sounds. It also has nothing to do with the rest of the record. Maybe they’re trying to create a sort of apocalyptic sphere here. But it’s not my cup of tea.

Premonitions Of War does have some strong songs on this record. A singer that shouts the devil away with the tail between his legs, some musicians that would simply play some covers of DEP for you if you’d ask to. And a drummer that keeps everything together (don’t underestimate this guy!). Only, I get the feeling they also are listening to bands like Isis and Neurosis, I hear some influences pass by. They should do more with that, because they surely have the capabilities for it. For this record: Brutal. Destroying. And still so precise.