Enforce, a quartet from Austrailia, has been around for a few years. The band's guitarist/vocalist, Guy Bell, sent me Premonition, their self-released tape a few years ago, so to say I'm familiar with the band's sound is a true statement.

That said, this CD took longer to get into than the aforementioned Premonition, which was firmly rooted in thrash metal. What threw me for a loop on Campfire Night were the sections that sounded "so familiar" that were offset by non-thrash sections, like the interlude in "Brutal." This section begins with a groove drumbeat from Graeme Stone before turning into death metal and Guy's powerful vocals turning to a growl and the guitars turning into a "how fast can we play" chops demonstration.

So what you end up with is Enforce competing with itself: it gives you death metal that you've heard before, so they have to throw in interesting thrash metal to bring back your attention. So, when the band is thrashing out, like in the title track, I get the sense the band is comfortable with this new identity of mixing the death and thrash genres together, as if playing 100% thrash wasn't enough - that they had to open their wings to fly to higher ground.

That's admirable, but it doesn't really work if your death metal sections sound familiar, not to the point you can say, "This is from the last Immortal CD" or anything specific. You just feel like you've heard it before. That feeling starts with the very cliche theme of nuclear war with a track called (you guessed it) "Nuclear War." I kept waiting for the band to do something different, to go beyond the anti-nuclear war anthems of the 80s metal explosion. Lyrically, I was disappointed in the chorus declaration "Fuck you and your nuclear war!", hardly what I would call "mind-inspiring" quality. The death metal music beneath this chorus and Bell's growling turned me off of this song. The last verse, though, redeems itself with these graphic lyrics:"A burned out soldier in a ruined world/ People panic and perish, tormented by death/ a country under seige dominated by fear/ governments ruled by chaos murder and war."

Second track "As Death Sets In" carries on the same theme of the chorus of "Nuclear War" with blast beats and growling. Campfire Night quickly turns into not the most awe-inspiring 45 minutes ever pressed to CD. The intro to "Slayer" with a slow power chord opening and hi-hats keeping time when the guitar isn't dangling, then a death metal blast beat from Stone takes over. Forty-five seconds into the song, a thrashy guitar riff is punctuated with caught cymbal accents. Slayer did that in the 80s. Still, there are true moments of "Wow." I really like the guitar riff during from 1:56-2:05. The riff is original sounding, where as the part from 2:46-2:56 sounds like something I've heard before.

As much as it pains me to say this, I didn't really care for this release. It seems like the band, in their transformation, hasn't fleshed out their songs to the degree that they should. There are more "moments" or short passages I liked, rather than complete songs. The first 20 seconds of "Stalker" have my attention, but then the song turns into a "I've heard this before" death song. The accent pattern from the :47-:57 mark is just "so familiar."

I can tell the musicians in this band are talented, but it feels like they haven't put together a CD that truly showcases their talent from start to finish.

Rating: C

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