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“Strength Through Vengeance.” Seldom has an album title so perfectly defined the sound and thematic imperative of a band as well as A Perfect Murder’s choice for their second album. The sheer rage expressed unilaterally in their lyrics and bruising musical attack is controlled and precise as a scalpel, carving slices of classic thrash metal, southern sludge and hardcore; a steely testament to it’s purifying power. The band’s declaration of war against enemies great and small, from the personal to organized religion, pours down on the listener like an avalanche, but their heaviness never bogs down, due to the band’s sharp sense of dynamics and guitarist Carl Bouchard’s incendiary soloing, drawing from influences like Metallica, Pantera and Testament.

The album is an impressive accomplishment for a group of musicians who might have never met, much less played together. A Perfect Murder was formed in Montreal in 2000. After recording “Blood Covered Words” and “Cease To Suffe...