The current Thrash Metal revival has given birth to legions of new bands. Repent (named after Accuser's 1992 album) from Germany is not one of them. Although there might be the possibility that not a lot of music fans have heard of them up until today, their history dates back to 1992. Philip Rath explains: _Well, we got together in our rehearsal room in 1992 and started to play covers of our personal heroes. In 1996, we played our first live gig.? Two demo tapes followed, _On your Knees? in 1997 and _Black Path? one year later. The first CD _Escape from Reality? was released in the year 2000, followed by another demo (_Deadly Thrash Attack?, 2001) and the second album _Disciple of Decline? (2004). Repent also played their biggest gig in 2004, opening the _Keep It True? festival in November. Philip Rath remembers: _We had to open the festival at 12:00 o'clock noon but some people must have liked what we did. We sold quite a few copies of 'Disciple of the Decline' at that festival._ In 2009/2010 Repent recorded another promo/demo CD followed by the third album _Vortex of Violence_ for High Roller in 2012.
Whereas most of the current Thrash Metal bands claim to have been influenced by German outfits such as Kreator, Sodom and Destruction, this is not what Repent are all about. True, they are from Germany (Nuremberg to be precise) but their musical roots lay abroad. Philip Rath says: _Personally I think we are not that close to the classic Bay Area sound but when people compare us to those great bands, then I just think this is a great honour. Don't get me wrong and I won't like to offend anybody but if you compare 'The Law', 'Reign in Blood' 'Epidemic of Violence' or 'Twisted Into Form' with anything Kreator, Sodom and Destruction recorded, then there's just no competition. The Americans wrote better songs and they knew how to play their instruments. The only exception from Germany might have been Accuser and that is why we named our band after them. We love their 'Repent' album to death. Totally! Everybody is talking of a thrash revival and that's just not true. Even in the darkest days of Grunge there have been killer Thrash Metal records, like the debut by Channel Zero (1992). Today there is just so many new bands in every genre, also for example in Doom Metal. So if so, there must be a revival of sorts in each and every genre of Metal. However, Thrash will never again be as successful as in in the 1980's. But I reckon the quality of the music back then was better and that is the reason why.?
As you already know, Repent have been around for quite a long time. So what does Philip think has changed in the Metal scene over the past two decades? He reflects: _Today it's more quantity than quality. New bands are more uniform and streamlined than in the past, more polished songs from polished bands, less club gigs, more dumb festivals with the same bands playing again and again, less record sales because of mp3's. But mp3 is the modern equivalent to tape trading and that is good for smaller bands like us, our music gets out there. But there is fewer and fewer kids that know their Metal roots. There is more and more old people in the scene but not all of them still listen to what they loved in their youth. The comeback of vinyl has been great though. I personally only listen to the old shit. If it is new shit, then it is the new shit of my old heroes. There is just one exception to the rule: I love 'Black Future' by Vektor. That is one new band I totally adore. Our singer Eumel buys more new stuff than me. But I don't know if he is only into collecting or if he really digs all this new crap. You will have to ask him about that, ha, ha!?
Repent's third album _Vortex of Violence? has the quality and finesse to become a modern Thrash Metal classic.
Matthias Mader
