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Turbo: Awatar
 Awatar is the 2001 release from Poland's Turbo, and here we see the metal veterans mixing things up a bit, adding some modern sounds to their hybrid of thrash and classic metal. Downtuned guitars on a classic sounding metal record you say? Yeah, pretty much. Tunes like "Spectre in the Opera", "LSD" (featuring some ripping lead guitar), and "Dream" have that groove-laden crunch of bands like Disturbed and Sevendust, but fret not, as the Polish juggernaut go for the throat on all-out thrashers like "The Limit" and "Embyro". They even hint a little at the classic Iron Maiden sound on tunes like "Army" and the progressive tinged title track. As with all Turbo releases, the end result is melodic, crunchy, and well executed heavy metal, nothing outstanding or original, but solid stuff featuring tasty guitar work, stompin' rhythms, and strong vocals. The band even throws in a few bonus cover tunes on this one- smokin' versions of Deep Purple's "Burn" and 'When a Blind Man Cries", and Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights". It all makes for a fun, if unspectacular release.
Track Listing
1. Army
2. Spectre In The Opera
3. Dream
4. The Limit
5. LSD
6. Catatonia
7. Awatar
8. Embryo
9. Fright
10. Burn
11. Deceit
12. When A Blind Man Cries
13. Neon Knights
Added: October 4th 2009
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:  
Related Link: Turbo Website
Hits: 2925
Language: english
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Turbo: Awatar
Posted by Jon Neudorf, SoT Staff Writer on 2009-10-05 00:55:53
My Score:
*****This is the review of the 2009 reissue of Awatar from Metal Mind Productions*****
Starting out as a heavy metal metal outfit, the Polish band Turbo came into existence in 1980. Later on some of their material has been compared to popular thrash icons Anthrax as they incorporated thrashier components into their sound. The band broke up in the early 1990s before reuniting a few years later with the making of Awatar, released in 2001. My version is the Metal Mind reissue released in 2009 and contains a whopping seven extra tracks. You can trust Metal Mind productions to do a bang up job as they seldom disappoint. Now on to the music.
This release has the band going for a straight up heavy metal approach with only the occasional foray into thrash. Crunchy heavy metal riffs, rapid fire drumming with some double bass drum action, up front bass work and the raspy vocals of Grzegorz Kupczyk is what you can expect from Turbo. This is a good metal album with hard and heavy guitar riffs spread throughout and while the lead vocalist is good the course vocals can be a bit too much. When he slows down his delivery it seems his voice is a lot less strained and is quite enjoyable.
The album begins with the melodic crunch of "Armia", filled with fast riffage and a pretty cool bass part. This is what you can pretty much expect with the rest of the album as the band does not stray too far from its heavy metal formula.
The album's extra tracks are a definite bonus and are well worth listening to, especially the two Deep Purple covers "When A Blind Man Cries" and "Burn" with the former having one of the best lead guitar solos on the entire disc. A ripping version of Black Sabbath's "Neon Knights" is a lot of fun and the slow ballad "Lek" features some excellent acoustic guitar. The cover tunes are sung in English while the rest of the album has Polish vocals except for "Dream", the album's last song where the vocals almost enter growling territory.
While this release did not blow me away, it is an enjoyable slice of heavy metal even if the vocals were not always spot on for me. If you are into heavy metal, check out Turbo and decide for yourself.
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