Mantic Ritual at Myspace

Mantic Ritual’s Executioner is an example of the thrash revival being done right. Although it’s never too original, the riffs, leads and songwriting are strong as hell, resulting in an album that’s strong all the way through, and Mantic Ritual don’t make the same mistake as Blood Tsunami and make sure that the songs are actually heavy; there’s no over-melodic frippery here.

Executioner is a re-recording of an album recorded under the band’s previous name, Meltdown. I haven’t heard the original version, so I can’t comment on it, but the production on this is excellent throughout. Dan Wetmore’s vocals are excellent; at times, he appears to be invoking Kill ‘Em All-era James Hetfield in his delivery, but he mixes it up enough so he doesn’t feel like a total clone. The solos and riffs are also excellent; the album’s only real weakness is the rhythm section. The bass is barely audible and the drumming is especially weak; it just sounds repetitive, dull, and overly mechanical most of the time.

Still, despite that one major fault, this is a fine album and a worthy successor to the original wave of thrash bands. If only the rest of the movement was this strong…

Blood Tsunami at Myspace

Blood Tsunami’s sophomore effort is caught between two extremes. On one hand, the songwriting  is perfectly fine; they know how to write good riffs and the musicianship is excellent. The only truly poorly-written song in my opinion was the 13-minute instrumental Eceladus Rising, which has some good parts but just felt aimless overall. Unfortunately, the guitars just aren’t heavy enough for this material to work fully; for most of the album, there’s a distinct lack of the oomph that thrash metal needs to succeed. Instead of playing their songs in a brutally heavy style, the guitarists just glide along like a poorly animated CGI monster that’s far too agile for its size; there’s little sense of weight to these songs, however well constructed they are.

Compounding the problem is that the vocalist sings in a style that suits death metal more than Blood Tsunami’s brand of melo-thrash (and the backing vocals are even harsher). The contrast between the relatively light, melodic riffs and the growling vocals hurts the material greatly. That said, Grand Feast of Vultures is far from being a horrible album; it’s tightly played and never bogs down in repetition. It’s just that its limitations are highly disappointing and could be easily remedied.

Chainsaw at Myspace

Note to self: Don’t get an album solely because it contains a cover of a band you like. This goes double if that band is Spinal Tap.

First of all, this is the Chainsaw from Holland, not any of the seven other bands listed on Metal-archives with that name. (There are also no less than 20 bands named Armageddon, and those are just the ones who managed to spell it correctly.) Chainsaw plays thrash metal that just doesn’t distinguish itself from the crowd. The playing isn’t offensive or anything, it’s just pedestrian (with a few exceptions, such as godawful drumming on a few tracks and a few guitar solos which sound like the notes were chosen at random).

The lyrics try to be amusing and even socially relevant at times, but they just sound like a middle schooler trying to sound edgy. For example, here’s a verse from “Hand of God,” a song about plastic surgery:

I’ll cut you up I like it tight
I’ll lift your breasts because they just don’t look right
Your legs are fat I’ll suck them slim
I’ll re-create you until you look divine

I understand that English isn’t these guys’ first language, but I can’t ignore lyrics like this when the vocals are this lame. The singer sounds little better than some guy they brought in off of the street. Sometimes, he sounds like he’s just trying too hard to sound silly (admittedly, this might be because a Dutch accent just sounds weird to me for a thrash metal vocalist). And what about that cover that caused me to pick this up? Well, Spinal Tap’s “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight” sounds lame when played by Chainsaw, although at least they didn’t go the obvious route and cover the Ramones’ “Chain Saw.”

“Metal Missionary” isn’t offensively bad; it’s just not very good and only worth picking up if you’re a really die-hard thrash fan.

Lich King at Myspace

Amherst’s Lich King combine Bay Area thrash worship with goofy lyrics to create an album that’s mostly for die-hard thrash fans only. Although the band claims to be a quintet, I suspect that it’s a one or two-man project, as the band lists among its personnel Darth Vader on bass, Hulk Hogan on drums, and A Fucking Tyrannosaur on vocals. Say, could you imagine what would’ve happened if Mr. A. F. Tyrannosaur had wanted to play guitar? They would’ve had to have custom-ordered a huge one to accomodate him, and even then his playing would’ve been highly constricted due to him having only two fingers on each hand. But I digress.

Songs include “Black Metal Sucks” (which is just a regular thrash song until the last 30 seconds, which are a riotous parody of the title genre), the hilariously-titled “Attack of the Wrath of the War of the Death of the Strike of the Sword of the Blood of the Beast,” and “Office Politics” (which is complete with a sample of Milton from Office Space). Although the lyrics are humorous, the music never quite manages to transcend its Bay Area influence, and just feels like thrash worship. Of course, this is a comedy album, so the music isn’t quite as important as the lyrics, which begs the question of why the mediocre instrumental “I Destroy” was included. Another track, “Predator,” recounts the film of the same name; Arnocorps already did this about a million times better. All in all, Toxic Zombie Onslaught is competently executed but fairly dull, and only moderately amusing.

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”.

Merciless Death at Myspace

Any album starting off and ending on with a musical homage to Death Angel’s “The Ultraviolence” by a band named after a Dark Angel song is enough to tell any thrash fan they are in for a good time. I would have expected a generic time too truth be told, but Merciless Death are one of the premier thrash revival bands in the world today and have their own distinct style that is pretty hard to compare with anyone else. It’s intense, violent, and is musically as occult as its lyrical themes with eerie Jeff Hanneman-esque solo’s as landmarks amongst the passionately speedy riffs and drum fills. Not a minute is wasted with Merciless Death playing at a faster tempo than most thrash bands thus meaning their album is 28 minutes whereas in the hands of someone such as say Evile it may be pushing towards the 40 minute mark.

Bassist Andy Torres is also the bands vocalist and his punk rock vocal technique has divided some of the more purist Thrash fans. The way I would describe his singing style is to imagine Jerry A of 80’s Hardcore punk band Poison Idea but with a bad throat infection and marbles in his mouth. It’s an acquired taste but although it definitely needs work I think it suits the music much better than someone warbling like they were in say Metal Church. This is thrash for the thrash fans, it’s not going to appeal to people who don’t love this genre a lot, but those who are addicted to the thrash will adore this record.

Exodus at Myspace

This is a strange review to do as this is basically if you’ve heard what “Bonded by Blood” sounds like, then you really aren’t doing this whole metal thing very well. “Bonded by Blood” is one of the cornerstones of heavy metal as we know it and although re-recording ones early works using better modern technology (see Testaments “First Strike Still Deadly” Destructions “Thrash Anthems” and Anthrax’s “The Greater of Two Evils”) the usual method is to record a greatest hits style package rather than a whole album especially one as influential as “Bonded by Blood”. This is a risky manoeuvre for sure and I’m not sure if it’s paid off.

The guitar’s sounds are more meaty and lower tuned and the recording is understandably of better quality but the one thing I miss the most is Paul Baloff’s vocals. Don’t get me wrong Rob Dukes is an extremely talented and charismatic vocalist and his work on “Let There Be Blood” is a measured and powerful take on these classics but it just doesn’t seem the same without Baloff’s vocals. Off key and slightly out of time are criticisms often thrown at Baloff’s performance on “Bonded by Blood” but his bizarre retching vocal style had a genuinely unhinged vibe that made lyrics such as “there’s blood upon the stage/bang you head against the stage” and “kick in your face and rape and murder your wife” sound as if they were the demented threats of a rampaging lunatic.

In the hands of any other vocalist those lines however sound goofy to the point of parody. It was Baloff’s frenzied and unsettling performance (which proved to be very influential on the likes of Chuck Schuldiner and John Tardy) that made “Bonded by Blood” into a work of malevolence that was as dark and frightening as any of Slayer and King Diamonds best. Without him the riffs are still stellar, and songwriting still streets ahead of this time let alone the standards of 1984 and 1985 but it just doesn’t have that evil threatening atmoshphere that made the original recording what it is. To finish the album, a track from 1983 never officially released as a studio recording entitled “Hells Breath” has been added presumably as an incentive to attract fans who already have the original “Bonded by Blood” to buy “Let There Be Blood”. It’s a charming Venom-esque number, but to be honest if you already have the original “Bonded by Blood” album, there’s no need to get this one.