Tyrant at myspace

Welcome to the early 1980’s as Tyrant (not to be confused with the band who would eventually evolve into The Legion) take us on a magical mystery tour through the best that Black/Thrash has to offer. Taking influence from Bathory, Venom, Motorhead, Darkthrone and Celtic Frost, “Reclaim the Flame” has a melodic groove; not melodic in a Gothenburg way, but melodic in a drunken singalong to “Ace of Spades” or “Black Metal” sort of way. The riffs and melodies get stuck in your head with minimal effort and you can’t help but sing along to mid paced thumpers like “Uprise”.

Like a lot of Black Metal inspired releases, the production isn’t pristine which is a godsend as this album wouldn’t be half as entertaining if it had the same productions as say the new Satyricon album. The grimy and deep guitar tone gives Tyrant the sort of guitar sound that Venom or Hellhammer would have killed for 25 years ago. This is a pretty big claim to make on the strength of a debut album, but I feel Tyrant may proves themselves over their discography in years to come to be the band that Darkthrone now want to be but seemingly aren’t able to be. Not the Darkthrone of lore, but the Darkthrone of “The Cult of Alive” and the following albums. Whereas “The Cult of Alive” was tedious after several listens, “Reclaim the Flame” is a captivating piece of singalong thrash/black metal. Hopefully Tyrant can keep this quality going for the rest of their careers, as “Reclaim the Flame” is a stellar debut.

Hyades at myspace

Italians Hyades are another band who are bringing the thrash back to the metal scene. The first comparisons on the looking at the cover art and track listing would be Anthrax and Municipal Waste, with the irreverent Ed Repka artwork and track titles such as “wops still thrash” (yes the song is actually called that!) giving the impression this is non-serious party thrash like the aforementioned bands and Bonded by Blood and Gama Bomb as opposed to the ultra serious style of thrash of say Evile and Warbringer.

The first impressions prove true with “the worst is yet to come” being a perfect record to use the ole proverbial beer bong to. There are some serious songs such as the anti-Bush anthem “Buried in Blood”, but songs such as “Skate Addiction” which validate my initial thoughts on the record but even the serious songs such as “Pharmageddon” and “New World War” give Municipal Waste a run for their money in the fun thrash stakes in overall atmosphere.

Talking of which, Marco Colombo has a similar Surfer drawl as Municipal Waste frontman Tony Foresta albeit with a strong Italian twang which adds a great deal of character to the proceedings though it is hard to work out the lyrics (as if that matters with a vocal delivery and riffs like these!). As a vocalist he seems to have a bit more versatility than Foresta though it only used sparingly as not to spoil the overall “stoner dude” effect.

The music does owe a debt to the Bermuda short wearing ones along with Bay Area overtones. This is beefed up good time thrash just as good to listen to at 2am whilst eating takeout food and playing Xbox 360 games to as headbanging. This my friends, is my soundtrack to hanging out next summer, and who could want more than “the worst is yet to come”. As the band themselves say in “Wops still thrash”; “This album kicks ass”

Violator at myspace

Originally released on Kill Again records in 2006, “Chemical Assault” was reissued by Earache records in Europe in 2008, this debut album from Originally released on Kill Again records in 2006, “Chemical Assault” was reissued by Earache records in Europe in 2008, this debut album from Brasília based thrash act Violator is 80’s sounding in more way than one. The guitar tone and overall recording quality are nearer to the conditions of Destruction and Exodus recording particularly in the guitar tone than say Evile or Gama Bomb. This is both immersive as one can really imagine just for a second that this is a long lost record from 1987 and distracting as the cymbals and hi hats in particular sound too distant and muffled. Whether this was an attempt to get back to the vintage age of thrash in a similar fashion to Witchcraft trying to capture the the feel of 70’s metal or out of necessity due to lack of funds is uncertain.

The music itself mixes Teutonic and bay area elements together to create a sound that might be described as a slightly blackened and a lot less melodic Bonded by Blood era Exodus. This is not a pretty album, it is about raging riffs at fast tempo’s and blistering solo’s rather than beauty. This about war, destruction and thrash; this ain’t a fucking Armored Saint record if you get what I’m saying. Bassist/Vocalist Pedro Arcanjo Has a high pitched stratchy vox similar to the early style of Kreator vocalist Milie Petrozza which greatly adds to the vibe of the record. This a nice piece of retro style thrash and is worth any thrash fan checking out.
based thrash act Violator is 80’s sounding in more way than one. The guitar tone and overall recording quality are nearer to the conditions of Destruction and Exodus recording particularly in the guitar tone than say Evile or Gama Bomb. This is both immersive as one can really imagine just for a second that this is a long lost record from 1987 and distracting as the cymbals and hi hats in particular sound too distant and muffled. Whether this was an attempt to get back to the vintage age of thrash in a similar fashion to Witchcraft trying to capture the the feel of 70’s metal or out of necessity due to lack of funds is uncertain.

The music itself mixes Teutonic and bay area elements together to create a sound that might be described as a slightly blackened and a lot less melodic Bonded by Blood era Exodus. This is not a pretty album, it is about raging riffs at fast tempo’s and blistering solo’s rather than beauty. This about war, destruction and thrash; this ain’t a fucking Armored Saint record if you get what I’m saying. Bassist/Vocalist Pedro Arcanjo Has a high pitched stratchy vox similar to the early style of Kreator vocalist Milie Petrozza which greatly adds to the vibe of the record. This a nice piece of retro style thrash and is worth any thrash fan checking out.

Villains play mid 80’s esque death metal with plenty of influence from the first wave of black metal that sounds like it came straight from a teenager’s basement in 1980’s. I can almost picture it now, the poodle haircuts, the homemade Venom T shirts and the disused ALF merchandise in a corner and that Villains can summon up that vibe as a modern day band is pretty impressive indeed. Yes this hits the spot just right, very primitive nasty stuff; so primitive it would be rejected by the inhabitants of the Stone Age for being too backwards and basic.

This of course is a good thing as with all the technicality and modernity around extreme metal at the moment it’s could to have some bands all about blasting back to the past. At 28 minutes it’s just the right length and if you want a record to knock back the brews to, then well there’s fewer better candidates than “Drenched in the Poisons”.

Katalepsy at myspace

If a bunch of sissy hardcore boys make a facsimile of death metal with breakdowns and shitty gimmick vocals then it is deathcore and thus bad but if a bunch of guys singing about gore and death and whatever with long hair do the same its “slam death metal” apparently. One is the bane of extreme metal and the other is a perfectly acceptable evolution of Death Metal despite both sounding the same. As it turns out Katalepsy aren’t a bunch of pale skinny mid-western white boys with stretched ear lobes and Atticus hoodies, but a bunch of tough as nails Russian dudes.  They might as well be the former as that’s the music they make though.

I have nothing against mixing Hardcore with Death Metal when it is done with the imagination, innovation and an eye to detail that all good music is made with, let’s be honest the shit to good ratio in Deathcore is pretty high. The breakdowns on “Musick Brings Injuries” are more On Broken Wings than Obituary and the Death Metal segments are more repetitive than you would find in Bona Fide Death Metal seeming to sound like a  Down syndrome version of Mortician. There’s conveniently a Mortician cover on this album along with a hilarious Deathcore version of “Symphony of Destruction”. That means that a quarter of the time on this album is other peoples material and its better constructed than Katalepsys original tracks, which being one of the artists in question is Mortician is really saying something.

The thing that really sucks though is the vocals. What these knuckleheads want to be is more “extreme” than anyone else. They can’t play faster, heavier or more technically than anyone else, so they make the vocals more “extreme” which in this case means making them sound like a cross between a pig and a cricket and never singing in time once. Not in an endearing Paul Baloff way but in can’t go more than 5 seconds before going out of sync with the musicians. It seems that since your average deathco…. Oops I mean Slam Death musician can’t play better than anyone else that have to make the vocalist make as many silly ill fitting sounds as possible to be the most “BROOTAL”.

At the end of the day this variety of metal as exhibited by Katalepsy and their much more musically proficient but still vocally untalented forefathers Devourment has as much influence over the overall death metal scene as Velvet Caccoon or Les Legions Noire had over the Black Metal scene; a lot of dweebs on the internet talking about it, but nothing really happening. If all these “XSLAMXDEATHX” bands sound like Katalepsy, then that’s certainly a very good thing indeed.