Thrash metal – Page 44 – Wonderbox Metal

Pokerface – Divide and Rule (Review)

This is the début album from Russian Thrash Metal band Pokerface.

Pokerface play Thrash Metal with a modern sheen that nonetheless takes its cues from the early, aggressive style of the genre. Think a modern take on older Kreator and Slayer via a bit of Dew Scented.

The singer has an impressive snarl that she uses to great effect. She varies her attack and includes higher and lower screams, as well as even the odd bit of spoken-word.

The musicianship is tight and first-rate without being flashy. There are solos aplenty and these are very enjoyable.

The production is strong enough to showcase the band at their best but not polished enough to give them that manufactured feeling. Pokerface are the real deal and Divide and Rule is 36 minutes of ferocious underground Thrash Metal.

The songs are sharp and fast, going straight for the jugular with lethal intent. Songwriting ability is clearly valued highly and there are lots of hooks and catchy moments across these 10 tracks. The songs are well-written and the performance is energetic. There’s a lot of content on this album and the band offer up a meaty feast to be hungrily devoured by Thrash fans everywhere.

It’s really nice to hear this kind of Thrash Metal. In an age where a lot of Thrash bands seem to be take the retro/comedy route, seem compelled to have some form of nonsense gimmick, or blend their Thrash with other styles, it’s great to hear a band like Pokerface who play no-nonsense aggressive music, backed up by talent, skill and confidence.

I could easily imagine this band being snapped up by one of the larger labels and given wider exposure. Let’s hope that happens, eh?

If you’re looking for a bit of satisfying Thrash Metal with good songs and a killer instinct, look no further.

Highly recommended.

Aterra – All Born in Pain (Review)

Aterra are from Poland and this is their début album. They play modern Metal.

This album is full of heavy guitars and enough beats to dance to. This is distinctly from the modern school of Metal that fuses Metalcore with elements of Thrash and even Nu-Metal.

This is quite a varied release, with plenty of different styles and flavours touched upon over the 37 minutes of music here. There are frequent small interludes between the main tracks and these take a wide variety of different forms, adding texture as the album unfolds.

How to describe the band…take a bit of Sepultura, (Chaos A.D./Roots-era, vocals and music), a pinch of Korn’s funkiness, some of the Metal stylings of Darkest Hour and Killswitch Engage, the added electronic parts of Rammstein…it’s quite a melting pot of influences that makes me quite nostalgic for this kind of music during the late 90s and early 00s in some ways.

This has the variety and pop-Metal foundation of Nu-Metal, hardened up by Metalcore’s grittier influence. And, unless you’re completely allergic to this kind of thing, it works well. This is helped greatly by the fact that the vocals, (for the most part), are mainly barked out at full volume throughout. Yes, there is the odd spoken-word and clean vocal, but for the most part they’re uncompromisingly un-radio friendly, which is always a bonus.

Very good. Loud, brash, unapologetic and shamelessly enjoyable. All Born in Pain works well.

Recommended.

Rectified Spirit – The Waste Land (Review)

This is the second album from Indian Metal band Rectified Spirit.

The band play Thrash Metal with a modern edge and both Progressive and Power Metal influences.

Clean vocals that are reminiscent of the singer of Nevermore are twinned with harsher screeching shouts that recall the singer of Soilwork if he had a less-deep voice. There are lots of very memorable melodies and the singer has considerable vocal talent.

Musically the band’s songs take a modern view on aggressive Thrash which they then add Progressive/Power Metal flourishes to. The resulting tracks are very enjoyable and have a lot to offer the discerning Metal fan.

The Waste Land is a well-written slab of Metal and owes equal debt to both the American and European Metal scenes, taking cues from both and combining them effectively into their own identity.

The band know their way around their instruments, but this is never at the expense of the songs themselves. There are boatloads of decent riffs that are arranged well; the band firmly concentrate on their songsmithing and the album greatly benefits from this focus.

This is a quality release with a lot of mileage in it.

Shotgun Justice – State of Desolation (Review)

Shotgun Justice are a German Heavy Metal band and this is their début album.

Shotgun Justice play a personable brand of Heavy Metal that incorporates elements of both Hard Rock and Thrash Metal into its upbeat delivery.

Despite a logo and album cover that might lead you to believe that the band play some form of contemporary Metal, this is music that’s resolutely Old-School and couldn’t care less. The songs reflect this, as does the low-key production.

Shotgun Justice have the feeling and attitude of the early-Metal era firmly nailed down, managing to reproduce the essence of the time quite faithfully. Although this can be slightly deceptive, as the Old-School swagger and production sometimes masks the more interesting and sophisticated elements of their sound, such as added female vocals and some nice moments of introspection, (such as The Scales of Justice), as well as some almost Progressive Metal influences, especially on the latter part of the album.

The male vocals have some presence and do their job nicely. On occasion these are joined by the aforementioned, and very impressive, female vocals, adding a different facet to the band; it’s a really nice touch.

If you’re in the mood for what is, (largely), a throwback to simpler times with some rocking good tunes then you could do a lot worse than this. Check them out and see if they hit the spot for you.

Collision – Satanic Surgery (Review)

This is the fourth album from Dutch Grindcore band Collision.

I was introduced to Collision via their brief split with The Rotted. Both of those tracks feature on Satanic Surgery, and I was impressed with their merging of Grind and Thrash.

Boasting 13 violent tracks that average about the 2 minute mark, this release is surprisingly catchy for something that’s essentially trying to rip your face off.

Blasting mayhem and high-pitched maniacal screams are restrained just enough to stop them descending into total chaos. The songs feature rhythms, vocal patterns and flesh-slicing melodies that stick in the brain more than they probably should.

This is foot-tapping good. It’s music that makes you want to move, even when it’s stupidly fast and the only realistic movement you can accomplish is basically to make your entire body spasm to the beat. Yes, that’s what we want out of music.

The band have focused on actual songs as part of their furious Grinding, something that a lot of more extreme bands neglect sometimes. This helps elevate Satanic Surgery well above the average of their peers and into more rarefied company.

These high-energy tracks will have you reaching for the meat cleaver and dancing like a maniac before you can even ask, “what’s going on here?”.

Gloriously brutal and marvellously catchy.

Inner Sanctum – Legions Awake (Review)

Inner Sanctum are an Indian Thrash/Groove Metal band and this is their début album.

After a rather cinematic opener, Inner Sanctum reveal themselves in their full glory as Thrash/Groove Metal with some Death Metal influences included for added impact. Think the mid-00s-type NWOAHM, only with a darker, more classically Death Metal side to it that emphasises the European Melodic Death Metal heritage of the American style.

The album boasts a sexy, professional sound that’s polished and strong.

The singer has a gruff voice that shouts out with the best of them, occasionally including some semi-cleans that remind me of some of Darkane’s work in places.

The songs are well-written and it’s clear that these tracks have been constructed with care and enthusiasm. The Thrash and Groove influences never take over or embrace the mediocre side of both styles; Inner Sanctum play their brand of heaviness with vibrancy and passion. They deliver everything on here with skill and it’s clear that the band have the talent to succeed.

Legions Awake is a strong collection of songs that make a good impression and showcase a band who really know what they’re doing. If they were American and picked up by a large music label then they would get very far indeed, I think. Unfortunately that isn’t the case, so make sure you support them – bands like this deserve it.

For fans of – Pantera, Lamb of God, Chimaira, Shadows Fall, Darkest Hour, Legion of the Damned, Kreator, Arch Enemy, Testament, etc.

Interview with Suppressive Fire

Suppressive Fire’s début album Bedlam ticks all of the right boxes as far as Death/Thrash Metal goes, from the riotous album cover to the gritty, catchy songs. I donned some body armour and stepped into the fray…

Give us a bit of history to Suppressive Fire

Greetings and thanks for talking with us. I’m Joseph Bursey, the guitarist in Suppressive Fire. The band begin with the simple goal of playing fast and aggressive music. I put out a classified ad and was nearly ready to give up until Brandon Smith (drummer) answered my call. We hit it off great, riffs wrote themselves and soon we found our capable bassist/vocalist Aaron Schmidt who was originally going be our second guitarist, the dude shreds, but we decided to move as a 3-piece which has been working great for us.

What are your influences?

Everything fast, dirty, and offensive. I love 70’s rock like old Scorpions, Thin Lizzy, ZZ Top, but I also love some 80’s thrash. I guess the more German thrash bands like Kreator and Sodom are pretty big influences on me. Brandon’s our resident ex-punk made death metal guru. The dude loves all that techy stuff and honestly barely listens to thrash and then we have Aaron who loves doomier stuff and bands like Sleep. We’re all over the place but we’ve come together I think with great dynamics because of it.

What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?

All Hell – The Red Sect! This is seriously one of the best albums to come out of North Carolina. They’re like a punky blackened thrash and they put on one hell of a live show.

Love the album cover – tell us about this

Thanks! I feel like Par Olofsson caught what we wanted very well. I wanted album art to represent not only the music that was coming, but also some of the story unfolding within. Par illustrated this in a very Mad Max meets modern dystopia type setting wonderfully.

Give us a bit of background to Bedlam – any particular concepts or ideas you want to discuss?

Bedlam is much more than simple chaos. Nearly half of the album kind of follows a theme. Ceasefire starts with government betrayal, The Hellwraith follows our mysterious gas-masked ghoul who’s kind of controlling and steering everything into chaos, Coup d’etat is the uprising of people against the State, Crucify the Kings is the actual execution of all false leaders of our world, and we close with Bedlam, everything that’s left in absolute carnage. There’s a lot of other songs that fill in between that aren’t really tied to it, like Nazi Face Melter that’s pretty much just about Indiana Jones – Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Thy Flesh Consumed which is the demon’s perspective in the video game Doom. We’re just having a ton of fun and didn’t really aim for a concept album, it’s just that our style really came together and made one on its own.

How do you go about writing your songs?

I really just start writing riffs with no real end goal and listen back to them and classify them. Some may sound like good openers, mid-section riffs, verses, choruses, ya know, proper song writing! We come up with riffs either at practice on the fly or I’ll have a great riff come to me and have to hum it into my phone’s recorder because I’m busy driving! There’s no rules here!

How did the recording process go?

Recording went very well. Having had recorded our demo and the ‘Covered in Conflict’ split, we were pretty much ready to reload and attack a full album. Greg Klaiber did an amazing job capturing the sound we wanted. Joel Grind also did an amazing job. We played with his band Toxic Holocaust a few weeks before hand so I was very happy he had a chance to hear us live before mixing and mastering it. The best compliment we’ve gotten so far is simply that our album sounds just like us. No bullshit and straight forward speedy thrashy metal.

What’s your favourite song on the album and why?

That’s a tough one! I think I’ll have to go with the title track itself. Bedlam is a song where we threw everything we had at it. Like, 3 more songs could have been written with the riffs invested in it. The song was the most recently written song and definitely shows a lot of progress as we’ve gotten more used to writing together. It’s also really fun to play live!

What’s next for the band?

Unleashing Bedlam on the world! We’ll be hitting the road January/February. ‘Bedlam’ releases on 1/14 and we’re doing a 4-date run that weekend across North and South Carolina, then we’ll be joining Hot Graves for a 9-date tour of Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia. We’ll also be playing with Warbringer, Exmortus and our friends Gorbash in February, 2/21 at the Pour House in Raleigh. We’re returning back North this summer as well! Then I guess more writing. I already have a lot of ideas for album #2.

Villainy – Villainy II: Dim (Review)

Villainy are from the Netherlands and this, (as the name would suggest), is their second album. They play Metal.

Their début album was enjoyable Thrash Metal with a few added elements of styles like Crust, Black Metal and Celtic-Frost-esque Metal to make things more interesting than your average Thrash band. It demonstrated a group who were not content to be mediocre and were striving the be different.

Well, on Villainy II: Dim they’ve progressed even further. This new album is more ambitious than the first and their Thrash Metal core is further enhanced by Doom and Black Metal influences, more so than the first.

The songs have a lot of ideas, depth and real potential for lasting impact. Featuring a surprising amount of variety over the 12 tracks, this is well-written Metal that doesn’t allow the listener’s attention to wane or wander.

Albums like this are a complete package, and by that I mean it’s a very holistic release with every song having its own identity, but still snugly fitting together as a whole.

The charisma and character of the singer has been brought further to the fore, and he sounds more confident and proficient than ever. Backed up by music that’s also more self-assured and expansive, this release is very impressive.

A strong, beefy guitar sound adds to the band’s delivery and the songs sound vibrant and fresh. Even though there’s a definite whiff of the Old-School about Villainy they have managed to produce an album that still sounds contemporary and relevant.

There’s over an hour of music on this release and no filler in sight. It’s always pleasing to see tangible progress in a band’s development and Villainy II: Dim is an impressively realised transition from what they were to what they are now becoming. Only time will tell where this will lead them.

This one’s a must.

Disquiet – The Condemnation (Review)

This is the second album from Dutch Melodic Thrash/Death Metal band Disquiet.

Disquiet play a heavy and aggressive brand of Thrash Metal with a nice Death Metal edge to it that means the band keep things dark and intense.

With plenty of jagged riffs and Metal leads, this is an album that it’s easy to feel at home with.

The singer varies his delivery between growls, shouts and what I’ll call almost-sung vocals – they’re almost sung, but not quite. Yeah, yeah, it may not be a very fancy description, but it suffices, and the end result is an added emotive edge to the vocals when there needs to be one without going full-blown into Metalcore-style cleans, for the most part.

I really like the production on this album and the thickness of the guitars. Everything else sounds top-drawer too and overall The Condemnation sounds quite immense.

If this album gets some good exposure I can see it doing very well indeed. It has the right combination of underground brutality and integrity combined with a songwriting skill that should ideally see them reaching a larger audience than a lot of their peers.

Recommended.

Suppressive Fire – Bedlam (Review)

Suppressive Fire are a Death/Thrash Metal band from the US. This is their début album.

I receive a lot of music promos, and I have to decide whether I’m going to give them a listen with a view to reviewing them, or not. There are lot of different ways I do this, lots of informal and flexible rules that sometimes vary quite a lot depending on how I’m feeling, what time of day it is, etc. Sometimes though, as with Suppressive Fire’s début, it’s all about the album cover. Something about the cover of Bedlam is just so unashamedly Thrash Metal, but without any retro-cheese-nonsense, that I just had to listen to it.

So here we are. As it turns out, sometimes you can judge the proverbial book by its cover.

Suppressive Fire play aggressive Old-School Death/Thrash Metal with a Blackened edge to it that makes it a far more aggressive proposition than most.

The songs are ugly, gritty and full of barely-contained spite. It’s pretty much a 50/50 mix of Death and Thrash Metal which gives the band an energetic sound that comes out in the riffs and galloping/blasting drums.

Featuring a suitably Old-School sound, the album rockets along powered by chemical weapons and nuclear fear. The guitars are riff-heavy and there’s plenty of solos to sink your teeth into.

It’s a decent collection of songs that have a subtle catchiness to them that initially seems buried under the barbed assault of the delivery, which essentially increases the longevity of the album as the songs don’t become too-familiar, too quickly.

So slip on the riot gear and descend into Bedlam.