This is the seventh album from Netherlands hardcore band Vitamin X.
I haven’t caught up with Vitamin X since 2012’s About to Crack, so a reunion with their energetic and charismatic blend of hardcore and thrash metal is long overdue. With Ride the Apocalypse we get 28 minutes of new material from the band, and it rips, rages, and tears its way through the running time across 17 high-octane tracks.
The songs are fast, short, and engaging. The blend of hardcore fury, punk heart, and thrash riffs is well-done. The influences sit alongside each other so well and so naturally that they’re basically indistinguishable. The crossover appeal is immediate and potent; it’s hard to dislike what Vitamin X are peddling.
Despite the brevity of each individual song they’re not uniform in structure or form. Obviously there’s an overarching stylistic framework, but within this Vitamin X’s songwriting is strong enough to hold the attention easily throughout the record’s brief duration. The songs are characterful, memorable, and draw you back with their energetic delivery.
Energy is a good word for Ride the Apocalypse. The riffs go hard, the leads and solos bleed molten lava, and the vocals drip with old-school personality. There’s hard rocking licks, classic punk attitude, belligerent hardcore anger, and thrash metal teeth. Basically, Vitamin X kick out the jams with punky vigour, and you know you love it.
Ride the Apocalypse would have been right at home in my listening rotation a couple of decades or so ago, when I was listening to a lot more stuff like Agnostic Front, H2O, Madball, Minor Threat, Poison Idea, and Sick of It All. The style generally turns up less in my playlist these days, but Vitamin X are an exception.
Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 