Review of the Album "Redefined Mayhem" by German Thrash Metal Band Holy Moses

“Redefined Mayhem” is the latest musical work by German thrash metal band Holy Moses and Sabina & company are still alive and well even though the band isn’t releasing material as often as they used to. Redefined Mayhem was released in April 2014, almost 6 years ago and the album still has that vocal ferocity that we hear from Sabina Classen and clearly this woman loves what she does for a living otherwise she probably wouldn’t be that woman that has that fierce nothing to lose vocal attitude and stage presence.

Are there any real cons to the album Redefined Mayhem, this latest album from one of Germany’s best thrash metal bands? There is a song called “Whet the Knife” and the spelling of it is strange at least to me. There is an instance in which the riffing tries to sound like the UK’s Cradle of Filth and that is in the song called Redemption of the Shattered. Holy Moses is a better band than that and they have shown that they can be much more than just another heavy band. I don’t normally start an album review with the cons of the album but in this instance, I briefly addressed that. “One Step Ahead of Death” starts with a beautiful and creative acoustic part and it builds up in heaviness gradually. All right, now let’s get back to the impressive Sabina Classen shall we?

Though I wonder if Holy Moses really actually redefined thrash metal with this release. They didn’t redefine the genre however the album stylistically resembles their 2005 album Strength, Power, Will Passion but is this album really better than that one? It is not likely to be as good as that one but it may not matter that much anyway because Holy Moses has not had one single bad album and I’ve heard the majority of their works. I am really starting to believe that every album Holy Moses has put out has been at least of the good quality. It is like every release of theirs put out has turned to gold, that is how magnificently awesome these men and woman are.

Having stated that, Redefined Mayhem begins with the heavy song “Hellhound” and this is about a creature that roams around terrorizing the area and doing whatever it can to prey upon human flesh. So, 11 albums and more than almost 40 years later, Holy Moses is still active and well!

Undead Dogs lyrically is similar to the first song of this album. There is a good chance that Holy Moses got the title for this song from their second studio album Finished With the Dogs. However, the song “Into the Dark” may not be good enough thrash metal for many of the band’s fans but for me this is an interesting musical experimentation as it sounds like a higher quality nu-metal song mixed with melody. Through 2 full listens through Redefined Mayhem, I see mostly the same Holy Moses that we have been accustomed to hearing at least since 2005 with a touch of modern thrash metal. Even if the songs in the album are a sort of watered down version of thrash metal, the bass lines are still audible and the good, rough vocals by Sabina Classen are still there. She hasn’t stopped being that raw, aggressive front woman that loves to have fun and we can definitely give her credit for that! Holy Moses is one of the few bands that I’ve heard that make just thrash metal albums but are able to make them sound good all the time. It has been like a flawless victory for this band throughout their entire career which most bands can’t really do. Even Metallica has not been like this. Fading Realities features melody in the beginning of the song that we haven’t heard from Holy Moses before and it works this time! Can these Germans do anything wrong musically? The answer appears to be no, they really can’t mess up because they are so gifted! Credit must also be given to where I have been able to find out about so many of these bands and that is because of a website known as Metal Archives.

Actually the career of Holy Moses is more like almost 34 years long because from about 1994 until 2000 they were inactive. Redefined Mayhem clearly does not start out as heavy as Agony of Death did but it may have a little more variety in terms of musical time changes. “Triggered” is a song that lyrically is about someone that remembers their past as the unpleasant images cloud their mind. Even if Redefined Mayhem is less heavier than Agony of Death, the first two songs show that the melodies are still pretty good here. The strongest songs in the album Redefined Mayhem are the mentioned Hellhound, Triggered, Into the Dark, Sacred Sorrows, and This Dirt.