The Speed Metal Thread

Agent Steel - "Mad Locust Rising" E.P. (1986)

I’ve long regarded Los Angeles five-piece Agent Steel’s 1985 debut album “Skeptics Apocalypse” as one of the top few speed metal records I’ve ever experienced so it’s fair to say that I didn’t hesitate in considering the band’s next couple of releases for inclusion while putting together an outline of the records I’d investigate as a part of this month’s speed metal deep dive. Agent Steel’s debut kinda fell into the speed metal tag due to it being made up of tracks that belonged in either the thrash metal or heavy metal camps so speed metal seemed like a happy medium, particularly given the extra melody in the vocals & guitar lines that wouldn’t normally be associated with genuine thrash. My review of 1987’s “Unstoppable Force” sophomore album last week found that the band hadn’t diluted their commitment to velocity in the slightest & I’d describe it as a relentless assault on the senses although the production & vocal performances left a fair bit to be desired & a lot of the more aggressive material is more speed metal focused than it is thrash. Having now closed that chapter in my understanding of Agent Steel’s essential releases I’m left only to fill the gap between the two albums with 1986’s “Mad Locust Rising” E.P., a twelve-minute affair that makes full use of it’s short run time.

“Mad Locust Rising” is made up of just the four tracks with the first being an insignificant 17 second intro piece that might as well have been a part of the first proper song as it serves no purpose on its own. The opening title track however is an absolute rip-snorter & takes a super aggressive thrash metal approach that’s far more similar to Slayer & Kreator than it is to Exciter or Helstar. Even polarizing front man John Cyriis’ whiny performance seems to fit the music beautifully & I’m not sure that Agent Steel could have come up with a better opener to be honest. Why the hell this track wasn’t deemed worthy of inclusion on a proper album is anyone’s guess. Next up we get a very solid & well executed cover version of Judas Priest’s “The Ripper” which is pretty faithful to the original but adds some modern-day oomph with a delivery that’s more in line with the US power metal sound. And finally, the E.P. is closed out with another thrasher in “Let It Be Done/The Day At Guyana” which is the more complex of the three proper songs & offers some fantastic riffs, particularly the Slayer-esque outro section from “The Day At Guyana” which would become a highly praised instrumental track on the “Unstoppable Force” album.

The production job is nice & raw but possesses a wonderful energy that beautifully highlights the strengths of the consistently high quality tracklisting. The performances are all excellent too with the over the top shredding of Juan Garcia & Kurt Colfelt being a definite highlight, particularly their Kerry King/Jeff Hannemann style effort on the title track which takes an already superb track to another level altogether. It’s really very hard to fault this little E.P. & I have to say that I’m surprised that it hasn’t gained more notoriety over the years. I can only suggest that the short run time is the main reason behind that but the other may be that fans weren’t quite prepared for the onslaught of aggressive thrash as there’s not really any speed metal on offer here with thrash metal & US power metal being far more appropriate genre tags.

I have to say that “Mad Locust Rising” has torn off my face & handed it back to me in pieces in many respects. I wasn’t in any way prepared to enjoy it as much as I have & now regard it as my favourite Agent Steel record by a clear margin. Is that due to the fact that it takes a direction that’s much more in line with my personal taste profile? Well… yes it certainly is but isn’t that how we all judge the merits of our music? It certainly is for me & I’m very glad to have discovered this short but very sweet little E.P. from a very important band in the US power metal movement.

For fans of Metal Church, Lååz Rockit & Destructor.

4.5/5

This one obviously sits better in The Pit than it does in The Guardians.

Bewitcher - "Cursed Be Thy Kingdom" (2021)

I quite enjoyed my initial experience with Portland trio Bewitcher last week. Their 2019 sophomore album “Under The Witching Cross” proved to be an infectiously fun collection of well-produced & executed speed metal with a noticeably blackened edge so I’ve come into their follow-up album (2021’s “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom”) with hope for similar rewards. Unfortunately though, despite some strong similarities with its older sibling, there are some stylistic differences between the two that leave me unable to muster the same level of enthusiasm for Bewitcher’s latest effort.

Tracks like “In The Sign Of The Goat” from “Under The Witching Cross” hinted at a black ‘n’ roll sound that never quite transpired but on “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” we see Bewitcher fully indulging in that side of their creative ambition & that element plays the role of the protagonist across the ten tracks included. A good half of the tracklisting also utilizes the speed metal of Bewitcher’s roots but there’s more space & openness to some of these songs which sees them leaning harder towards the traditional heavy metal sound of Judas Priest than it does any velocity-addicted speed metal outfit. The vocals of front man Unholy Weaver of Shadows & Incantations (his parents might have needed TWO birth certificates to fit that one in) may not be the nastiest you’ll find but his blackened snarl is enough to push me over the edge into black ‘n’ roll territory this time whereas I felt that subgenre was more of an influence on the previous Bewitcher album. Perhaps that’s because I found much less up-tempo Motorhead worship on this one with heavy metal tracks like album highlight “Valley Of The Ravens” tending to rock as much as they roll. I’d suggest that this is likely why I find less appeal in “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” too actually as I can’t say that I’ve ever really enjoyed that sort of thing. The inadequate cover version of Pentagram’s “Sign Of The Wolf” that closes the album out doesn’t help much either.

“Cursed Be Thy Kingdom” isn’t a bad record for what it is & I’m sure it’ll have its audience but that doesn't include me I'm afraid. I look for more adventure & danger in my music & Bewitcher's latest effort comes across as being a little unimposing & lacking in genuine depth when compared with the more substantial acts in the modern metal scene.

For fans of Midnight, Venom & Hellripper.

3/5

This one definitely sits closer to the Guardians than it does The Pit which has likely contributed to me not enjoying it as much as I'd hoped.

So this brings me to the end of my speed metal deep dive after analyzing ten releases that generally only receive the speed metal tag (i.e. without other accompanying tags) & I have to say that I've been left with some fairly inconclusive results. A couple of the ten releases clearly weren't Speed Metal records & fell into either the Thrash Metal or Heavy Metal camps while the rest were evenly split as far as which clan they'd sit more comfortably in. In saying that though, I do feel that there a number of different ideas about what speed metal really is & the clan I ended up selecting generally depended on which bucket the release fell into:

1. Albums that contain both thrash metal & heavy metal tracks so people choose speed metal as a happy medium even though there's not really any genuine speed metal on offer.

2. Thrash metal with operatic vocals & melodic guitar harmonies. Too melodic for many people to call thrash so they reach for speed metal as it seems more appropriate.

3. Sped-up Iron Maiden/Judas Priest heavy metal that doesn't utilize thrash tools.

4. Dirty/punky Motorhead/Venom worship that often isn't all that fast (sometimes with blackened vocals).

5. Fast metal that utilizes predominantly thrash metal techniques only the riffs are kept a lot simpler in order to act as an accompaniment for the vocal hooks rather than to act as a rhythmic protagonist. Stronger focus on song-writing & often offers a bit more melody than thrash. This is the brand that European power metal borrows from the most.

I've always felt that the truest example of speed metal is the last of those five options as I believe that the palm-muted, tremolo-picked guitar work is essentially the main speed metal tool. Options three & four don't require the use of that tool & are the two that fall more regularly into The Guardians camp so I can't help but maintain my position that when you get a pure speed metal release it usually feels more comfortable in The Pit (at least it does for me). Therefore, the final outcome is that I'm reluctant to make any change to the clan that Speed Metal resides in as I don't feel there's any clear reason to. Thoughts guys?

Yesterday I've given Watchtower's Energetic Disassembly a listen and a review, and even though I've referred to that album as progressive/technical thrash, I've just realized that it might be closer to speed metal than I thought because of that 5th option:

5. Fast metal that utilizes predominantly thrash metal techniques only the riffs are kept a lot simpler in order to act as an accompaniment for the vocal hooks rather than to act as a rhythmic protagonist. Stronger focus on song-writing & often offers a bit more melody than thrash. This is the brand that European power metal borrows from the most.

The only main differences are, at times when the riffs don't accompany the vocal hooks, they add in the technical complexity that would ignite the spark of influence for tech-thrash and even tech-death, and it's more borrowable for progressive metal bands than power metal. Now that I've thought about it more clearly, my initial description for the album's sound is quite off. It's more of a technical mix of progressive metal and speed metal, with elements of the technical thrash genre that wouldn't take full form until at least Coroner's R.I.P. Judgement submission coming soon!

Continuing my earlier speed metal clan comparison:

The Guardians - 4

The Pit - 2

Seems like The Guardians still has a higher edge than The Pit for me on where speed metal should go, but I'll let the other members share their thoughts on this.

Also, I've noticed something in one of your earlier posts in this thread, Daniel. You don't think of neoclassical metal as a legit genre. That's not really an opinion I can agree to. Neoclassical metal is basically a very technical and classical-based metal genre, with the classical-influenced compositions played in guitar instead of orchestra, and that's different enough to be its own genre. I used to listen to Symphony X, and that band is a quintessential example of that genre mixed with progressive metal. If neoclassical metal isn't a genre, what would you consider artists like Yngwie Malmsteen then? I think that's another issue that would have to be sorted out, though sometime next month or so. A good rest is what you need after your speed metal deep dive. Slow down the speed!

To be fair Andi, most of the releases you mentioned in your earlier post about speed metal's heavy/power metal credentials were hybrids with The Guardians genres which does tend to skew your outcomes. For example, I regard "Walls Of Jericho" as the earliest European power metal release so it's not a good sample case in my opinion. That's why I elected to investigate only releases that were tagged solely as speed metal. It's a difficult one to decide on anyway as it became very clear to me quite early in the process that speed metal is pretty much a combination of heavy metal & thrash metal.

In regard to Neoclassical Metal, I consider Yngwie Malmsteen to be a heavy metal artist as I disagree that a genre should be created based on its aesthetics rather than its core roots. If we take Yngwie's sophomore album "Marching Out" for example, the base roots of that record clearly sit in heavy metal with a bit of early power metal. Yngwie doesn't change the genre by playing neoclassical guitar over the top of those roots because you can play neoclassical guitar over any style of metal. Fleshgod Apocalypse used neoclassical influences in their solos & structures & I'm sure that you'll agree that they should sit under a vastly different genre to Yngwie Malmsteen.

My updated Top Ten Speed Metal Releases of All Time list:

01. Exciter – “Long Live The Loud” (1985)

02. Acid – “Maniac” (1983)

03. Agent Steel – “Skeptics Apocalypse” (1985)

04. Midnight - "Let There Be Witchery" (2022)

05. Voivod - "War & Pain" (1984)

06. Venom – “At War With Satan” (1984)

07. Savage Grace – “Master Of Disguise” (1985)

08. Iron Angel – “Hellish Crossfire” (1985)

09. ADX - "Execution" (1985)

10. Acid – “Acid” (1983)

https://metal.academy/lists/single/176

Helloween - "Judas" single (1986)

This hugely popular single was released between the German power metal icon's hugely popular 1985 debut album "Walls of Jericho" & the first of their two classic "Keeper of the Seven Keys" records in 1988. It features one new studio song in the speed metal focused title track which I quite like & is backed by two live cuts from the "Walls of Jericho" album in "Ride The Sky" & "Guardians". I've always enjoyed "Ride The Sky" & regard it as one Helloween's best tracks, perhaps once again due to it being more of a Metallica-inspired speed metal number than a power metal one. The same can't be said for "Guardians" though which is one of the earliest examples of the European power metal sound. It's admittedly a little more palatable here than it is in its studio form but still manages to ruin the whole release for me with its cheesy chorus & tacky guitar harmonies. Oh well.... what did I expect really. I'm my own worst enemy at times. 

3/5

Metallica - "Power Metal" demo (1982)

An unofficial fan-released demo that I used to have floating about back in the day which includes early versions of "Hit The Lights", "Jump In The Fire". The Mechanix" & "Motorbreath". The lineup is James Hetfield (vocals/rhythm guitar), Dave Mustaine (lead guitar), Ron McGovney (bass) & Lars Ulrich (drums). Metallica hadn't quite hit on thrash metal just yet & all of these tracks represent the less extreme inclusions from the "Kill 'Em All" album that would take the world by storm the following year. Mustaine was the clear star with his solos showcasing a fire in his belly that other bands were simply unable to match. The electric speed metal of "Hit The Lights" & the more controlled NWOBHM-inspired heavy metal of "Jump In The Fire" are clearly the standout tracks here with the other two sounding a little flat in comparison to their studio versions. With the "No Life Til Leather" demo now readily available with high-quality audio, I'd suggest that "Power Metal" is pretty inessential these days.

3/5

Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags (2023)

First off, I have to say that this is an enjoyable slab of metal but, in truth, it isn't really any more than that and I'm not sure I can get onboard with all the hype that has been behind this release. I think people are playing up the black metal content because, beyond the shrieking vocal style I don't think there is too much by way of black metal here. What it is is high-octane speed, thrash and good old heavy metal with a shit-ton of energy and vibrancy that exploits an assosciation with black metal by utilising black metal vocals, allowing an out-of-fashion musical style some relevancy within the modern metal scene.

Obviously James McBain, the sole muso behind Hellripper, is one hell of a talented guy and he can write riffs and hooks seemingly effortlessly as he glorifies fist-pumping metal hedonism, to which end his soloing is energetic and over-the-top. He certainly can't be accused of being boring or lacking ideas, but maybe therein lies the rub. It feels ocasionally like a pick'n'mix metal comp of Eighties worshipping retro-metal bands where every track works really well in isolation, but when consumed all together it becomes a bit too much. The only truly consistent factor is James' shrieking black metal vocals which do work very well in most instances.

Like I said at the start this is enjoyable stuff and I feel like a bit of a curmudgeon for saying it, but I really can't feel it enough to get me reaching for those higher scores. Maybe it just doesn't chime 100% with what I look for in my metal listening nowadays but it can't be ignored and has rightly has earned much praise for it's creator.

3.5/5