Latest Reviews

I am coming straight off the back of reviewing the new Sodom record and having referenced Destruction in that write up I thought it prudent to look at the other major Teutonic thrash release this year from Schmier and company. Could we have two decent releases in one year from two of the longest serving thrashers around nowadays? If there is one immediate similarity to highlight it is the album artwork on both records is great, and I would go as far as to say that Destruction pip Sodom to the post in that department overall. I feel it only fair to also say that the effort is also just as high from Destruction on Birth of Malice as it is from Tom and company on The Arsonist. Whilst the intensity levels might not quite be comparable, the work ethic is most certainly still there.

After only a couple of tracks though, it is clear to me that I prefer Destruction less overall. That’s not just a comment on this record; it is also a general statement about the bands over the many years I have under my belt from listening to thrash metal. It is not necessarily that Destruction are doing anything wrong. The current line-up is strong enough to carry off some blistering leads, furious drumming and cutting riffs. If anything, I have always had a problem with Schmier’s vocal style, and he retains those high-end shrieks here. Simply put I prefer my thrash metal vocals to be gruffer. Musically speaking though there are things to get on with here. The riffing on ‘No Kings - No Masters’ carries an otherwise clunky sounding track well, especially when the furious leads attack the track also.

Randy Black certainly puts a shift in on the drum kit without dominating the record and a healthy production job keeps the instruments all sounding coherent. The bass even makes a rare appearance in the middle section of ‘God of Gore’ but the track itself is one of the more muddled sounding ones on the album. What Birth of Malice needs is more direct an approach to proceedings, despite there being lots of leads flying around the place, we need more of the chopping thrash riffing intensity that underpins tracks like ‘AN.G.S.T.’ or ‘No Kings – No Masters’ instead of pseudo heavy metal numbers like ‘Dealer of Death’ or ‘Evil Never Sleeps’. The sad fact is that the second half of the record is utterly skippable with the cover of Accept’s ‘Fast as a Shark’ being the only pick from the final five tracks on offer. Here lies the final comparison with The Arsonist. Just like its Teutonic cousin, Birth of Malice is too long and could do a lot better coming in at the thirty-five-minute mark, culling most of the second half of the record in the process.

These Teutonic thrashers just don’t want to quit, do they? As we push into the middle of the 2020’s Sodom, Tankard, Kreator and Destruction continue to work on new material long into their careers, all of which now span beyond forty years. Whilst I am sure we could very easily dig out many turkeys from the backlog of records over the past four decades, it is hard not to admire the tenacity and resilience of any band that still sounds as committed to their artform as Sodom still do. Look, it would be remiss of me to suggest that The Arsonist is another Agent Orange. It is not of the same calibre and peak albums in a bands career are usually moments in time, specific to circumstance, influences and a good old lavishing of fate too.

The Arsonist is however probably the best Sodom record I have heard since Decision Day in 2016. It possesses a vigour that most other releases in the thrash world have lacked, based on my limited and often quickly tired listening experiences in 2025 anyways. There is a sense of great fortitude to this record, sounding like a record made by a band from their sheer dogged determination to just keep pushing on regardless of what the clock or calendar may say. Whilst it may lack any truly remarkable moments, The Arsonist burns with an intensity that belies the age of the participants. Scathing thrash attacks like ‘Trigger Discipline’ are what Sodom have based their career on, and it is good to see that fire in their bellies still. Tom sounds as pissed off as ever and the rest of the band miss no beat whatsoever.

At nearly fifty-minutes, it is a bit on the long side. When I am sat listening to some of the less well-arranged tracks like ‘Gun Without Groom’ this lengthiness seems to grate a little more during those minutes that so easily could have been left in the studio for a future compilation of B-sides and rarities. As I said earlier on in the review, my interest in thrash metal has been limited to but a few records this year and so The Arsonist is hardly jostling for position in a packed field of quality participants. However, it stands out for just being true to the style we know and love from Sodom and it further cements an already solid legacy. Whilst it may not be flawless, the same roots are showing in 2025 that were visible in 1982.

I never really know how to approach an album like Sodom's latest. A band that are into their fifth decade and with a lengthy string of releases put out an album of familiar-sounding material that, nevertheless, I still find hugely entertaining. This leaves me wondering exactly what I can say about it that may be of any interest or value to anyone other than "here is another Sodom album where they do their thing". Whether you love it or hate it depends entirely on your already probably long-established opinion on the band because this is so typical of them that it won't budge your prevailing opinion one way or the other. In fact, Sodom are so established a name that most people had probably made up their mind about The Arsonist long before actually hearing it. I don't think the Germans always get the praise I feel is their due and when they do it almost feels grudgingly given compared to the plaudits for their countrymen like Kreator or Destruction. In that respect I kind of look on them as the german version of Anthrax. Personally I look on Sodom as a bit of a poseur-filter, by which I mean that I see them as a band beloved only by dyed-in-the-wool thrashers and not really being one for the casual genre tourist.

Anyway, on to the Arsonist. I have to say I have had a pretty good time with this over the last two or three days. Their aggression seems undiminished by time with Angelripper often sounding like he is about to burst a blood vessel such is the viciousness of his vocal delivery, they still dish out some titanic thrash riffs and unleash several pretty tasty solos. There are two or three real belters on here with "Trigger Discipline", "Sane Insanity" and "Twilight Void" being the tracks that particularly tickle my fancy. I don't feel the need to say that this is a great album considering the band has been in existence for so long, because that would be condescending, but I have to say that is a good album by a band who have been around the block many times and who know exactly what they are about and who their target audience is.

If there is one caveat to all this positivity then it is the album's production. The Arsonist is undoubtedly the latest casualty in the Loudness Wars, with massive compression that sees everything cranked up well beyond 11. The drums also feel pushed too far forward in the mix and even run the risk of occasionally drowning out the riffs. That aside though, this is a decent album that shows that Sodom can still deliver the thrash metal fix that some of us stubborn thrash-heads crave and for that I am extremely thankful.

Probably the angriest album ever recorded. Definitely Slayer’s most vulgar, as well as their poorest lyrically, with way too many songs dedicated to “Fxck you, I’m gonna fxck you up, you better get the fxck out of my way.” It’s probably my least favorite Slayer record aside from their covers album for that reason. Although, another important reason would be how rhythmic it is; the band’s clearest foray into Groove Metal, and their most uninspired riffs go hand in hand with their most generically juvenile lyricism. I don’t hear the Nu Metal seasoning that many others seem to claim, but it’s definitely got a stain of “Modern Metal” on it. Many of the songs here don’t have any super iconic riffs, which is an absolute sin for any Thrash band. Even Diabolus, which I find much more underrated, did much better at crafting dark moods at the least, even if some of the riffs were similarly lacking a bit. Tom’s got a bit more production layered on his vocals here too, which in my opinion he doesn’t need and they just make him sound worse.

Why the high rating then? Cause at the end of the day, it’s still fxcking Slayer, the best fxcking Thrash band on the fxcking planet. “Disciple” is probably the angriest, most misanthropic anthem ever recorded, Araya going above and beyond delivering an intense vocal performance that is simply awe-inspiring in its aggression. “Deviance” is one of the bands most ominous and unique sounding songs ever, with a slight Gothic edge and unnerving double-tracked vocals delivering deeply disturbing lyrics. “Here Comes the Pain” is a slow build packed with power, whereas “Payback” has all the intensity and hate of aforementioned “Disciple,” all directed at a single person.

It's definitely got the most filler of any Slayer album, but even then the songs are still great. “Cast Down” fails to deliver any truly memorable riffs, but it’s incredibly unique in having one of the most somber and “real” themes in Slayer’s discography about the struggles and despair of drug addiction. “Bloodline” similarly lacks much musical punch, but is one of their catchier numbers, as “radio friendly” as this band got with a simple music structure, a focus on the chorus, and lyrics about vampires (which just barely precede the boom of vampirism in pop culture.)

So sure, it’s one of Slayer’s worst albums, but it’s also still Slayer fxcking shxt up like they always have, it pumps me up and melts my skin off, it’s got more intensity in it than most bands have in their entire career, and there is no better album to reach for if you just need pure, unfiltered rage.

Oh yeah, and it was released in 9/11, so that’s just one extra “fxck you” that comes with the package.

Considered Sodom’s modern masterpiece and arguably one of the pinnacles of modern Thrash (as long as modern still means anything after the 90’s). M-16 is one of Sodom’s most unique albums in that it’s a concept album about the Vietnamese War. It doesn’t exactly follow a distinct storyline, but each song touches on different aspects of the war.

Another way this album is unique is in how it has a surprising amount of restraint. Sodom have always been one of the heaviest Thrash bands, commonly flirting with extreme influences like Black and Death Metal, and even when not, delivering some of the most aggressive, bone-shredding Thrash out there. M-16 is surprisingly tame for the band’s standards. While the vocals remain just as aggressive, the guitars and drums are heavily tempered in their aggression, in fact often settling for a style akin to more traditional Heavy Metal when they aren’t delivering classic Thrash. This seems to have made the album more accessible to a wider audience, as the most popular songs here are the least thrashy (Napalm in the Morning and M-16).

However, what does that mean for a hardcore fan? While I do find this album fantastic, I certainly don’t rank it among the band’s best. Slowing down and playing more accessibly is the last thing I want from Sodom. Songs like the masterpiece “Canon Fodder” prove the band is as capable as ever at writing and delivering their signature style of no-holds-barred extreme Thrash, but I’d much rather have a whole album of that then the flirtations with slower, softer styles found here.

And they end the album in the absolute worst way possible, with a terrible, goofy, Crossover Thrash cover of a terrible, goofy song.

The concept elevates the album a little bit and the playing and songwriting is as good as ever. But the style shift is not what I expect or prefer from these guys. It’s an amazing album in the grand scheme of things, but among the discography of one of the titans of Thrash, I find it just average.

So after three albums where doing the same thing over and over again began to pan out less and less, Bay Area thrashers Vio+Lence seemed to have decided that change was for the better.  Except, they obviously didn't know how to change.  It's a real shame, considering that they had so much potential.  This third and final studio album takes a more radio-friendly approach to the compositions, which probably means they were looking for money.  But in this effort to produce something the alt-rock fans would like, they made a fatal mistake: see, when Metallica sold out, they didn't pretend The Black Album was a thrash album.  These guys still tried to pass of thrash as a heavily-radio genre without really thinking about what that meant.  They simply just nerfed the heaviness and assumed the genre would fill in the blank.  They barely bothered to compose, just to thrash.  Not really creativity there.  As well, what's the singer doing trying to actually sing without more practice first?  I mean, these guys have never been the best, but in their efforts to become even more relevant, they ended up at their personal worst.  The production is shotty, the vocals are bad, the heaviness is a knockoff of the knockoff second album, and it all gets in the way of the identity of the band.  Even if they had the right to try something new, this is not how one should go about trying new things.

53

So the first one was a good one that had some great, if not almost perfect, things about it, but some major creative bumps.  The most notable of these bumps was how most of these songs were pretty much doing the same thing, which meant creativity was at a low point.  very little differentiation betweem tempo, vibe and emotion.  Well, it still managed to be a highly spirited, thrashy and purely metallic experience.  This album feels like a nerfed version of everything that made the debut so good.  Everything's palatable.  There's still a good chunk of the spirit there.  Obviously, that hasn't left.  But the riffs are only pretty good as opposed to the wonderfully wild astuff we got before.  At first, the album's charm is cool, but it goes on that way for five of the eight tracks, tempo, vibe and everything, and the only thing that changes about track 6 is the tempo, and then we go RIGHT BACK TO THE SAME STUFF on track 7, and by that point it just gets old.  It will appeal to thrash fans for its spirit, but otherwise, it's an insult to the majesty of what makes thrash so grandios, being nothing more than a Malt-O-Meal variant of a better cereal.

67

After hearing the band's two early demos, I still didn't have much of an inkling as to their true abilities because the recording quality, demo or not, was terrible for the first demo and slightly better for the second.  With this one, they got a real producer to handle the sound quality, which maximizes everything they're capable of.  Thing is, while these guys are still stylistically generic, not really standing out with a style of their own, theycan sure jam like fuck and play at Star Trek levels of warp speed.  Much of the frontal work is done by later Machine Head guitarist Robb Flynn, who totally understand what thrash power and riffage needs to sound like.  For the most part, the rest of the instrumentalists aren't really struggling to keep up with him at all.  They match his power pretty easily, which is incredible considering that the single hiring of one different person would almost send this album toppling.  Of course, that's as far as the instrumentation goes.  Although this is a perfectly produced album with song great songwriting, I'm really not digging Sean Killian's vocals.  Not only is he joining the chained-to-a-wall kink train of thinking shouting the same way through a whole album is somehow the coolest thing you can do, but it sounds like he's in the wrong genre.  He sounds like he belongs in a power metal band or a Queensryche knockoff, like he's adjusting his voice for thrash to hide this and failing.  As well, with half these songs sharing very similar tempos and practically all of them bearing the same vibe, they don't really push any boundaries beyond raw instrumentality.  As well, some of the songs drag on much longer than they likely need to, largely because the album's mostly an exercize in showing off both instrumental and production techniques rather than an example of depth.  So I think it's right that I give this a good rating for some incredible strengths, but from a broader perspective, it's not the most enlightening... just addictingly thrashy.

83

Oh GOD do i love this album. I have started listening to metal relatively recently. Around 6-7 months ago and after starting with numetal at the beggining i wanted to expand my music taste. Among first albums that i listened to was this one. Before those 4-5 months ago (since the numetal phase lasted for around a month and a half i would say), i was really harsh on albums. I didnt make playlists but i rather liked songs and then listened to that playlist, so i was REAAAALLY picky about putting stuff in my playlist. Unless the song was, for my taste around 8.5/10 i wasnt putting it in my playlist. Probably my favorite albums until then were "Around the fur" by Deftones and "Hybrid theory" by Linkin Park and a few of Metallica's records, and even those albums had some skips (now relistening to them most of them dont even have them lol), so i didnt find a no skip album, UNTIL this album came in. Since the band wasnt super mainstream, my dumbass thought this would be underproduced bs that i would forget in the following few weeks or so. But then i started listening to it, and oh boy was i wrong. 8 song with catchy and technical riffing! My favorites are "Divine Step (Conspectu Mortis)", "Son Of Lillith", "Metamorphosis", "Pale Sister". Honestly, there is not a single bad song. Really like their album cover too! Never learnt what it meant or anything but a guy extendng his hand towards the viewer of the cover with the wavy effect and everything really is cool if i'm being honest. Still i wouldnt definitely say this is a PERFECT album. From time to time it does tend to get boring, and Ron's vocals, even though quite unique do get a bit annoying. Apart from that i have 0 other critiques. Also it would be good to say that this is my first album review ever, so i may have not noticed some things that are worthy of mention, bad or good. That's all.

I am a big fan of Onslaught's first two albums. Let's face it they were one of the very few thrash metal bands of any real consequence that hailed from the UK, so a bit of local bias came into play to endear them to me, even though those two albums are really good anyway. However, I have never listened to any of their post-reformation albums. Well, the intervening years between the 1991 split and 2004 reformation had seen the thrash world fall under the thrall of the groove gods, with the shadow cast by the likes of Pantera and Machine Head proving to be almost all-encompassing. In the 21st century it feels like the thrash world split into two distinct camps, the bands who embraced extremity and incorporated more death or black metal into their sound (let's call these the good ones) and those who sold their souls to the groove gods (for argument's sake we will call these the bad ones) in the hunt for increased record sales. Listening to "Killing Peace" it is obvious that Onslaught took the latter path, despite their earlier stuff suggesting they would be more likely to embrace the former.

To be honest, after only a handful of tracks I had had enough of this, it's groove-oriented approach sounding far too much like a knock-off Machine Head for me to stomach it for long. I stuck it out until the end as I was out dog-walking and it was easier to keep listening than change it. However, come album's end I had the horrible empty feeling in the stomach that I get when I realise a band I once really dug has sold out and is nothing more than a trend-following shell of its former glory. In fairness only two of the guys who recorded "Power From Hell" were present on "Killing Peace", drummer Steve Grice and lead guitarist Nige Rockett who had even relegated himself to rhythm guitar in the new band, but even so, the latter album sounds like it was conceived and recorded by a completely different band, possibly one from a different dimension such is the lack of connection I make to it. For me, this is akin to the chasm in quality between St Anger and Master of Puppets.

On the plus side the production is super clean, as you would expect from an album recorded this century and there are a couple of quite gnarly solos, with opener "Burn" being a case in point. Steve Grice's drumming is very good too and is one of the only reasons to listen to this more than once, which I am doing right now, so dedicated am I to delivering a considered opinion! The lead vocals are pretty horrible though ("Destroyer of Worlds" is just painful), the gang backing vocals are even worse and those bouncy, groove-oriented riffs are anathema to all I hold dear. Add in yet another overused "I am become death" Oppenheimer sample and I have just about had it with this.

I originally had this pegged as a 2.5, but further listening has hardened my opinion agaginst it and I can't bring myself to go higher than a 2.0. I will definitely stick with Onslaught's 80s stuff and file their reform albums in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet in the shed at the bottomof the garden marked "Do Not Listen - Ever".

When people ask me when I lost interest in the genre of thrash metal, I point them firmly in the direction of the years 2014-2016. During that time, all of the big four thrash bands released records. None of them were very good, yet everywhere I went, I heard cries of "thrash resurgence". I could not, in good faith, take the genre seriously anymore when their golden geese were releasing uninspired records and the only one that was any good (Anthrax's For All Kings) was underrated. This was in addition to many other B tier 1980s thrash bands like Exodus, Testament and Death Angel making a resurgence.

2017 was the end of my metal purge after post-secondary and I wanted something of sustenance beyond the tech-thrash coming out of Vektor and Revocation. So out comes Teutonic thrashers Kreator early in the year with Gods of Violence. I hadn't heard Kreator in quite some time but even I knew that this melo death inspired hybrid was not how Kreator sounded during their formative years. And yet for some reason, I really enjoy Gods of Violence. This is very likely the case that Teutonic thrash takes its influence from power metal; bands like Blind Guardian and Helloween have their influence felt in a lot of the lead guitars on "Gods of Violence" and "Lion with Eagle Wings". The albums main riffing is has some of that old school Slayer sound, while the modern production gives it some girth, and does have moments that remind me of modern Arch Enemy. Together, it might seem like Gods of Violence is a bit of a mess, but unlike the recent BABYMETAL album, these pieces are not kept isolated to single tracks on the album. Kreator have done an adequate job of revitalizing their sound to the modern age. Granted, I think Nuclear Blast might have something to do with that.

Gods of Violence was an album that took me a while to appreciate, given the time when I received it. It's a powerful record with lots of progressive effects used by Kreator to assist in relevancy. The main hooks are kind of hit-and-miss, but the hits do hit hard, songwriting is not bog standard and not a Sami guitar wank fest for almost an hour. When I'm not listening to progressive/technical thrash in my spare time, Gods of Violence is the type of thrash metal I use to relax.

Best Songs: World War Now, Gods of Violence, Lion with Eagle Wings, Fallen Brother

Seeing the RYM ratings between Deathrow's iconic Deception Ignored and their follow-up, Life Beyond, drop from 3.7 to 3.4, the latter of which is the same rating as their divisive debut, I was a little worried that the album would miss out on the key factors that made them such an icon in the thrash world in the first place.  But I started to doubt those very doubts upon finishing that opening title track.  If it proves anything, it's that Deathrow had not lost their sense of fun, or their ability to be technical.  Of course, it should be said that this is a somewhat less technical album than Deception Ignored, and that's probably the reason it gets so much slack.  But if they wanna have more fun and try to write a bunch of different types of songs again, then let them, because I was having a good deal of fun myself.  This might not be a TECHNICAL album, but it sure is wild.  The thing is, these tracks might share SOME similarities overtime, but they're really too different from each other to call it a monotonous album.  Staying in the tech thrash constraints, it maximizes what the genre's capable of like South of Heaven did, even if the combination of rhythms, production and vocals doesn't meet that same greatness.  Some tracks are edgy and a little groovy, some are wild and just plain fun, some are angry and even kinda evil, etc.  Deathrow proves themselves to be artists three times in a row as far as I'm concerned.

91

Deathrow made some major improvements to their general sound between the thrashy but fuzzy debut, Riders of Doom and their more epic and glossy Raging Steel, but they still had some improvements to make. This is where they decided, "Let's go crazy, let's get nuts," and turned into a freakin' prog band. And boy did they rock prog in ways most thrash bands couldn't at the time. I mean, some of these ideas sound like they were basically being Chuck Schuldiner before Chuck Schuldiner turned his band Death into a tech band. And sometimes they just get thrown in your face. That randomized piano playing at the beginning of Triocton kinda smacked my brown around like "What the hell just happened?" And they prove again that they're quite good at layering guitar riffs together. Of course, this also means there's a little less of the Teutonic side of things, being a bit more melodic and wild much like And Justice for All or Rust in Peace. Hell, you know they nailed it when a nine-minute song like Narcotic manages to flood you with a barrage of consistent riffs and progression that never gets too wild for its own good or overstays its welcome, AND THEN FOLLOW IT WITH A SEVEN-MINUTE EPIC. This was a major winner for the band, yet another improvement and a damn good reason to check out thrash.  This is the kind of album where the band proves they know how to both have fun with their chosen artform and treat it as an artform to grow and learn from.

92

Immediately after the intro, it becomes apparent that Deathrow had fixed the production problems that got in the way of their debut album's ability to entertain (most of the time).  This is the kind of album where a band is basically showing off how much they've improved without overdoing it.  Although the stay comfortably within the thrash vein for the most part (such as having our first song, Raging Steel, stay within the vein everyone's familiar with), not only does the speed metal come back, but we even get some real instances that feel more like epic storytelling rather than general thrash.  The track Dragon's Blood alone should tell you that.  This was also the chance to show off their progressive side, allowing songs to switch tempos at rapid speed, even to the point of flipping through channels.  And unlike much of the six minute stuff from the last band I binged, Destruction, songs like The Thing Within are able to keep going.  However, while its riffage stays great and its production fine, it DOES tend to get a bit traditional and samey by the end.  Nevertheless, I'm very happy that Deathrow grew up and rwwrote themselves so much soonere than Destruction did.

88

The album starts with the instrumental Winds of Death, which is simple, epic, heavy, but not the most original.  At one point, the intro sounded a lot like For Whom the Bell Tolls, which came out two years earlier.  After the intro, it takes no time at all for the band to head right into the powerful thrash that defined the genre, crossover undertones, King Diamond screams and all.  But it's already much more powerful and effective than any of the early works by Destruction, so this was a bit easier to enjoy.  In fact, the solos in Riders of Doom worked wonders.  It was obvious that this album had a much better idea of what thrash sounded like, even if the production's a little fuzzy for my liking.  Although, this helps the tremolo-picking heavily present on Hell's Ascent, basically adding black metal to the mix.  The riffs on this one are absolutely crazy.  But it doesn't take long for the album to get back to standardly powerful thrashing without much else on their minds.  In fact, some of the actual verses are pretty lame when it comes to writing, and sometimes all I could think of was when they were going to get to the solo.  No metal album should be like that.  So while this is extraordinarily heavy for thrash, even for the time, the riffs and the incredible power are enough to enjoy most of the album throughout while acknowledging the lack of thought put into art and writing, even though the longer songs at the end have a stronger sense of creativity.

76

Here it is, the major comeback for Destruction and their last testament to talent, as well as the end of my Destruction marathon.  I walked barefoot into this, expecting either one of their best and most creative albums, or another overrated display of thrash simplicity with production and energy as the headliners.  Maybe a little of both.  But it didn't really start out that way.  The intro was just a variation on things they had already done before, and the first two tracks, while well-played, sound like basic Destruction in the end.  Now the balance between energy and speed was perfect, but I'd once again be disappointed if they didn't even bother to try and write something new.  SOMETHING new, Bullets from Hell, went the speed metal route, and managed to keep itself up for the five-minute runtime with a pretty strong sense of fun.  But at the point of track 7, Meet Your Destiny, I realized after so long, I was getting bored with Destruction.  This is because the minor improvements in melody, production and heaviness overtime don't really change the fact that it's just another Destruction album, even though I would say this is one of the better ones in this format.  I suppose it's even better than the whole classic three, but not by a grand extent.  So, this is and isn't ending on a high note.

71.5

Well, it looks like longtime thrash act turned groove act Destruction learned their lesson.  Two EP's and one album into the groove scene, and it was obvious to them that groove was just not what the classic Destruction fans wanted.  They needed to get back to the pure Teutonic thrash that made them one of the big three in that scene.  And this, the pure return to form named All Hell Breaks Loose was formed.  Of course, I never thought the early sounds of Destruction were that clever, and thus, this return to form is just about as good as what we got before.  In fact, it sounds so much the same that even the fans of this band's earlier works admit that, while the Destruction fanbase gave a big fat "thank you" to the group for doing so, it's not like this album was anything new either.  This is largely due to the fact that the group got the classic members back together.  It kind of reminds me of Metallica's shift from radio stuff back to thrash during the switch from alt-metal album St. Anger to Death Magnetic.  I mean, yeah it sounds cool enough.  In a way, the extra heaviness and better production values give it some form of an edge in this vein, but there's the originality department that needs to be considered.  So while this is a much more fun album that what we've been getting before, and further proof of their ability to produce and mix well enough for their raw power, it's also pretty obvious that the raw power takes the helm while thick writing still needs some work.  Thankfully, there are a COUPLE interesting tracks, like the more proggy World Domination of Pain, but that happens halfway through (again).  But in the second half, the five-minute tracks tend to get overlong (again).  So in other words, this is a Destruction album (again).  So I'll put this in the same league as the first two albums.

68

Despite being in the Pit for my love of Metallica, can't say I'm very in tune with groove metal. I give it chances on and off, but have little interest in a deep exploration at this time. This is partially because so many classic thrash bands made the switch to at as quickly as the European prog giants of the 70's switched to AOR and pop rock, and the results were about the same: middling and generic. Of course, I can't deny that a part of me absolutely loves the album Invisible Touch by Genesis more than my technical rating states (which is already sitting pretty at 93). But how can I complete my Destruction marathon without getting through an album so bad it might as well be Lulu? It's a key part of their history just like Risk is for Megadeth, and I plan on stopping at their comeback album, The Antichrist. So, here we go.

Aside from a half-cocked album cover that looks less like a thrash album and more like a screenshot of a Monty Python animation with a quickly placed cheap font for a logo because "money's tight," I found it easy not to hate the album, shall we put it. Now I encourage change and variety so that a band can prove they're capable of many other things, thus potentially improving greatness by virtue of multiple talents. But how does this groove album stack up against the others? Well, with the groove aspect and slower tempos maintaining SOME of the thrash genre that defined them, this newfound love of the 90's sound fails to stand out. Catchiness is spotty and riffs are pretty done before. On top of which, it's pretty obvious how much of their previous identity they forsook for this new route. I'm sure if they had bothered to diversify their earliest albums more so that stuff like this feels a little more natural, this wouldn't have happened. I mean, the vast majority of these groove songs do more or less the same thing, which in itself is hardly a surprise considering that it's a Destruction album. There's a rare exeption in Brother of Cain which goes into some major thrash power. Otherwise, it hardly gets interesting at all, and mostly just worries about getting on 90's radio. So this really doesn't do Destruction, or the groove world, any favors. Having said that, it's still a bit better than those two groove EP's they did in the eight years between this album and their last, Cracked Brain, so it's not terrible, just not promising.

57

I guess I'll just have to give up on the idea of Teutonic thrash act Destruction going for the artistic route again for a few releases.  I mean, this 1994 EPreally offers nothing new in anyway, shape or form save one tiny little insignificant detail: they decided to jump on the groove metal hype train, as if that would make their music any better.  They were already devolving back into the generic thrash band that ironically made them a key figure of the small Teutonic thrash act before they started focusing on real songwriting with Mad Butcher.  This groove metal album is a short little 21 minutes, so it doesn't have the disadvantage of overlength that even a 40 minute album like their previous venture, Cracked Brain, did.  But now with the groove aspect so deeply implemented, they spend less time on rhythm and writing and more time on breakdowns and repetition just because they figured it to be the "cool thing."  In other words, they sold out and lost their depth.  The last track is the best one for being a bit weird and creepy, but it's still repetitive in this way even for three minutes.  What an unbelievable disappointment...

48

You'd think after such a grand venture into creativity (or at least grand for Destruction's standards) such as Release from Agony, they'd continue with this newfound love of writing and try something bolder and bigger next time.  Instead, what we have is a degeneration back into primordial soup.  And even though that sounds pretty metal, it's not a compliment.  Cracked Brain, release #7 and studio album #4, shows them going back to the same repetitive writing and tempo that they spammed to freakin death on their first three releases and their live album.  The only thing that can be said that's favoriable against the first three is that the production's better.  We've been getting good production from them since Mad Butcher.  But the problem here is that things are significantly less interesting.  Nothing interesting happens until Rippin' You Off Blind, not only takes place after a standard cover of My Sharona of all songs, but goes back to the same old same old again while lessening the effect of the rhythm and atmosphere.  And the most interesting song is the eighth of nine, No Need to Justify, which is only interesting because of a mellow intro and a different tempo.  All of these songs are decent and aggressive alone, but put together it's an incredinly samey experience that I wouldn't be quick to recommend when so many better albums out there exist.

63

Right from the start, Destruction boasts of of their most well-produced and best sounding albums so far.  If I had to rank them, I'd say this is second-best, with the first being Release from Agony, the one that got me thinking, "these guys CAN be a great band," especially after starting with so many samey and generic pieces.  The production captures the full extent of the raw power in which they're able to ply.  Not a single not is left to drown in the arena.  I honestly didn't think Destruction would be even able to afford that.  Thing is, even though the studio album right before that, the aforementioned Release from Agony, greatly impressed, I was a bit worried about them taking so many tracks from the samey era and lumping them together.  And unfortunately, that's what I got.  While the production adds a lot more power to each song, it's a pretty damn samey album.  They likely only took the title track from my favorite of their albums because it was one of the closest to sounding like all the rest.  They're largely all sharing the same BPM which really pisses me off.  So while the energy and production are fantastic, they rely on their generic sound through and through, neglecting the improvements in writing that they so obviously intentionally made throughout the last couple releases.

73

After three decently energetic but artistically disappointing albums and one big improvement on writing in a four-track EP called Mad Butcher, I was really hoping the next track in this major thrash venture, Destruction, would show some real class and sophistication.  After a surprisingly moody and atmospheric intro, I'm assaulted with their heaviest thrash so far: Release from Agony.  But there's more unpredictability and rhythm involved in all the speed.  God was I hoping this would be a consistent thin, especially considering that this is the last of the classic Destruction era before the initial quality drop until four albums later with their comeback, The Antichrist (unless you count the live album, Live Without Sense).  The next track goes more or less the same way, but still boasts the improvements with ease.  But I found myself once again worried when track four, Sign of Fear, clocked in at nearly seven minutes.  It starts off with some doom metal before going into some straightforward heavy metal incorporating some thrashiness, but a slow enough pace to completely differentiate itself from the bulk of the generic Destruction catalogue.  This song gets dark and even creepy at times, so in a way it became my favorite Destruction track.

As I'd naturally expect, Unconscious Ruins goes right into the wild and insane hyperspeed thrash that we should come to expect from a band like Destruction.  This ups the ante on their previous heaviness yet again.  Being a fun-filled four-minute thrash track, it only really seems generic when compared to giants like later Kreator albums.  Otherwise, it's pretty fun.  Incriminated starts off with a slower, groovier approach before going into more hyperactivity, and like the previous track, remains fun.  But it seems that breaking new ground wasn't a focus anymore.  Still, it one again rocks all the improvements they made on their production, stylistic and rhythmic choices.  The rest of the album plays out very similarly, and maintains both its newfound improvements and standard behavior at the same time.

Boy did these guys rock the concept of a largely single-genre album.  Of course, this album's also a bit frontloaded because the second half doesn't really take any experimental directions like the first half did.  Still, this was a wild album and a huge improvement, a final testament to their golden age and IMO the best they had to offer at that point.

87

It was pretty obvious from the way Mad Butcher started out that I was in for a bit more of the same Destruction music I was getting since their debut EP.  I mean, is Destruction really known for mixing things up a bit?  Thankfully, and I mean thankfully, the titular opener took a few different directions that are all expected to be part of a Destruction song every now and then, but not necessarily all together.  Quite unpredictable.  That fake fadout and the Pink Panther ending were quite the surprise.  Then the album goes into a little of a Gothic ballad vibe with The Damned... appropriately named.  I'd have like a little more of that on the previous releases.  Of course, it did go into an uptempo as I expected, but it kept up the vibes pretty well.  It does this for about a minute and a half before completely changing the tempo while still carrying a sense of drama rather than demon-fueled anger, a little like a power metal track.  Can;'t say I'm a fan of how singer Mike Sifringer kept trying to raise his pitch at the end of most of the sentences like he was King Diamond or something, which he's not.  Now Reject Emotions is a seven-minute song, so I was a bit nervous about this at first, considering how many of these seven-minute Destruction songs were totally drawn out.  But with a decent-sized mellow opening and some proggy thrash moments following, I once again got the idea that this song would be an example of total art.  Thing is, when I start to get that vibe, it's usually betrayed.  BUT, the first two albums showed some decency in that department, so I held onto the hope with only minimal expectations.  And thankfully, I got quite a few interesting turns.  It even became a prog track for a bit.  The album ends with a decent three-minute piece going into speedy guitars and an epic metal vibe.  This is the kind of way to end it.  Honestly, this is exactly what I've been waiting for from Destruction.  I'm not sure the next album will reflect this growth, but I'm largely happy with the way it went.

81

Big three of Teutonic thrash?  I was starting to question such a decision made by 80's society with Destruction's debut EP and debut studio album failing to meet my standards for greatness.  I was really hoping for something more artistic this time.  judging from the way Curse the Gods put up a couple more tricks, making six minutes feel like four at the same time, I thought to myself I might finally get that are I was lookin6 for.  I mean, sure, they fall in the same tempo and stylistic tropes for the most part, but it seemed like they were really trying to get something historical out there.  Or so I thought at first.  Unfortunately, there are still times where things feel too drawn out yet again.  It's obvious that the five-to-six minute edge doesn't generally work for them.What really bothers me about this album is the way the percussion sounds.  It's not heavy enough, being almost entirely drowned out by the lead and rhythm guitars.  Now the unpredictable sense of art comes back for the shorter songs on Side B, making things interesting again.  The drums can even be heard properly.  The last track is even a much better example of the aggression and technique that the band's been largely relying on, being much heavier and more powerful than ever.  So while this managed to be a slight improvement in writing, it also fixed its production problem in the first half.

71

It's obvious that the band was trying a little harder in the art department to keep things a little more sophisticated, especially from such a progressive intro track.  Much more interesting things are done with the hardcore-style riffs, finding clever ways to combine multiple repetitive riffs together for some grand new idea.  A very goo example of that is the middle-section to The Ritual, which found ways to be unpredictable despite its lacking progression of, ahem, different notes.  But this usually isn't the case.  There's still the filler aspect in which production and speed are the major factors.  For example, Death Trap just goes on for far too long.  It's got some damn good riffs, but it's a bit easy for these guys to draw out five minutes when their biggest concerns are speed and atmosphere.  And Tormentor sounds like a broken record until you get to the guitar solo.  Hell, the eight-minute closer, Black Death, is basically switching between the same two riffs throughout the run, managing to do less imaginitive things than the four-minute opener.  So in a way, it feels like they didn't really care about the fans enough to really write their own Stairway.  There are noticeable improvements in the production and a few of the riffs, so there's that, but the fact that they went from the three-minute songs to five minuts with little change in most instances is a little of an insult.

69

I never hear anyone talk about the band Destruction these days, but they still get really good reviews.  I guess they're one of those bands you just check out if you like thrash history or have a soft spot for the Teutonic stuff.  Since I need to review one of their albums for the list challenges on Metal Academy, I started with their debut extended play, Sentence of Death.  The apocalyptic spoken intro was cheesy enough as I expect, but even though there's some pretty good riffage here, at this point, I've just heard so much thrash like this, even though this is the really early stuff.  Having been released about four months after Metallica's game-changing Ride the Lightning, this sounds pretty generic in comparison and many other thrash albums, even better ones, would sound just like this.  I suppose all the dark and thunderous sound effects are their attempt at a sense of art, which is fine, but I'd prefer if their riffs more greatly reflected that.  Now for early thrash, this relies on darkened screams, general speed, and decent riffs.  They go for a speed metal route that comes off a bit punkish, and can even be seen as a small factor in the early development of black metal.  But other than that, there's nothing here that Metallica, or even Venom, didn't do better.  It's obvious that writing was of least concern as long as they could be fast and edgy, and they kind of succeed at that.  But since it's only a debut EP, it';s obviously not the most well-produced thing on Earth.  These guys were obviously young and just wanted to rock the basics of a new world and grab a piece of that Metallica action.  Decent, but only really necessary if you're a thrash history buff.

68

Had it immediately upon release and 36 years later own original promotional and consider it an example of unmatch, mind blowing virtuosity so beyond all other progressive metal before,or after that it stands as the bar set all others are defeated in their endeavoring to match much less even near. All the critiques posted are by resentful envious individuals throwing stones at those prodigies they can never emulate. 

Crucified Mortals is basically a duo of vocalist, bassist and guitarist Craig Horval, aka Reaper, and drummer Ash Thomas who is actually guitarist and vocalist in a number of Ohio death metal bands. They have been joined on Psalms of the Dead Choir by Detroit lead guitarist Victor "Lore Lord" Ruiz in a guest capacity. The album is very much based on the old Slayer sound, with Reaper's vocals sounding like he is a big admirer of Max Cavalera. The riffs are pretty decent, albeit not the most original you will ever hear, but this is thrash metal almost 30 years removed from its heyday, so what do you expect? The soloing is where I scratch my head the most because Lore Lord sounds like a pretty good lead guitarist, but his solos here seem almost hesitant, as if he is uncertain of himself. Whether this is down to a misperception on my part or some hesitancy to fully express himself or lack of confidence on his part in a band that he is only performing with as a guest, I have no way of knowing. Check out the soloing towards the end of "Into Eternity" to get an idea of what I am getting at - it feels like he really wants to let rip, but is holding back for some reason.

I guess this doesn't really hold up as well as I was hoping when I suggested it and I feel my 4-star original rating is maybe a bit generous upon relistening to it. It is a perfectly fine, third tier thrash metal release that holds very few surprises for the seasoned inhabitant of the Pit. My favourite part of the album is probably the hulkingly slow intro riff to "Dusk of the Advent" which left me wondering why more thrash acts don't slow things down to a more menacing pacing sometimes, for variety's sake if nothing else. Ash Thomas' drumming is probably the one real highlight of the album for me and he seems like a very talented skinsman, despite it not necessarily being his day job.

At the end of the day this is a "C", maybe a "C+" thrash metal release and just adds fuel to the fire of my belief that the South Americans are now the only game in town when it comes to thrash metal.

Act of Defiance is the side project of Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick after leaving Megadeth. They were around during the Endgame to Super Collider era of the band. Perhaps beginning with Megadeth as the point of reference was a bad place to start because I already have a storied history of disliking that band. So when the downtuned guitars and harsh vocals of Henry Derek open up Old Scars, New Wounds I was certainly intrigued. For starters, it didn't sound like Megadeth, which is already a big green flag in my book! That optimism quickly faded as Act of Defiance reveal all that they learned in songwriting from Dave Mustaine as Old Scars, New Wounds becomes a bore to listen to. This record loses momentum in record time as they begin copying riffs as early as "Lullaby of Vengeance"; not to mention that many of the albums slower tunes like "The Talisman" sound like they borrowed a riff straight out of the In Flames songbook.  

This album has awkward aspirations of being something more than just a bog standard mid 2010s thrash metal album. The vocals are varied between clean and harsh, the riffing goes through a variety of styles, there is guitar soloing galore and a basic understanding of key center fatigue. The issue is that most of it is performed with the most careless attitude. Henry Derek's vocals are so monotonous and most of the time, the cleans sound atrocious over the soundscape. Every riff sounds borrowed from another more popular trend, and the low end of the album is utterly neutered by Broderick's guitar playing. The riffing, soloing and drum work is pretty good so if you're just looking for some good old fashioned shredding to indulge in, you'll likely have a solid enough time with Old Scars, New Wounds. But even for a project that is so linked to Megadeth, I expected a lot more. 

Best Songs: Molten Core, Reborn, Broken Dialect

The best ever thrash album to come out of Italy is probably not that well-known, but it is a super-intense blast through riffs and thrashbeats that is both wild and exhilharating. Vocalist, Ingo, has a really evil-sounding bark that gives the album even more of a dark edge. If you have listened to much South American thrash then you will feel perfectly at home here. Driving right up to the border between death and thrash metal, whilst definitely remaining on the thrash side, this takes the intensity of the Big 3 teutonic thrashers and injects it with the evil darkness of atmosphere found on Possessed's Seven Churches. In common with most people I suspet, this passed me by in the Eighties, but I am glad I stumbled upon it years later and it still carries an effective and vital intensity even nowadays. A much overlooked 80's thrash metal gem.

Ripper are yet another of the superb thrash acts hailing from the Santiago / Valpairiso area of Chile, forming in 2007 and still going strong. That said, the lineup that recorded 2016's Experiment of Existence is very different to today's with only band founder, guitarist and vocalist, Patricio Spalinger, remaining. The entire album was written by bassist Pablo Cortés who departed in 2019 and is now to be found in death metal acts, Suppression and Ancient Crypts. As is fairly typical for the chilean thrash scene, Experiment of Existence is very tightly performed and especially aggressive deaththrash that captures the essence of something like Seven Churches, but with more ambitious songwriting and a greater emphasis on technical skill.

One thing you may have come to expect when you spin a chilean thrash album is that you are gonna get some killer thrash riffs along with electrifying soloing thrills and Experiment of Existence certainly doesn't disappoint with Ripper delivering in spades. One particular area where the chileans excel though is in the rhythm department and, again, Ripper tick that box too. Drummer Nicolás Villanueva, who was also sticksman for another favourite of mine, Parkcrest, is an excellent thrash drummer with a powerful and busy style that never misses a beat and his timekeeping drives the tracks at considerable velocity throughout. As I mentioned earlier, bassist Pablo Cortés wrote the album and this may be one of the reasons for the prominence of his driving and fairly complex basslines although, in truth, a prominent bass presence in the mix is yet another telltale sign of the modern chilean thrash scene. Patricio Spalinger's vocals are are of a vemomously ascerbic style that sounds like it takes a lot from Chuck Schuldiner's influence.

So, basically, Ripper have reached back to one of the most interesting times in metal's development as thrash was inexorably metamorphosing into death metal and given it a modern makeover with generally better production values and technical competence whilst never losing sight of what made those times so exciting in the first place. The tightness of the performance is a testament to the four guys' ability and you will be hard-pressed to find a metaphorical musical hair out of place here. Experiment of Existence is a triumph of high velocity, aggressive and muscular thrash metal that proves that thrash didn't die in the 90's - it just moved south!

I am not super familiar with a lot of metalcore, outside of a few big names like Converge and Trivium and I have only very recently tried to explore it further. I find a lot of it to be very samey, with little to differentiate a lot of the bands, but Earth Crisis certainly are not one of them. Destroy the Machines sounds very much to me like a straight edge band that has discovered Sepultura's Chaos AD and thought "We'll have some of that". I like quite a few straight edge bands, even though they can be annoyingly preachy, and Chaos AD is a great record, so that combination works really well for me.

Vocals can often be a personal bugbear with metalcore acts, but Karl Buechner has a raggedness to his voice that makes it sound less shouty and forced than most and that is definitely a plus. A lot of more modern metalcore feels like it has moved away from the punk side of the equation, but Earth Crisis are most definitely authentic when it comes to their punk credentials, which gives the album a looseness that allows it to breathe rather than the constipated tightness of more recent metalcore orthodoxy. The riffs are great, even pretty groovy at times, yet still contain a lethal agressiveness that lets everyone know exactly just how pissed off these guys are. If more metalcore sounded like this then I would most definitely be a bigger fan.

The scathing attack of Demoniac is a welcome approach to how I like my thrash metal. With a frantic pace to proceedings, So It Goes stamps and stomps a mark in sheet steel when the band are in full flow. Those sneering vocals and razor-sharp riffs over a plodding bass and relentless drums makes for a great combo. As such, there are parts of the record that connect well with me. The Kreator and Sadus vibes are strong in this group. Heck, even the progressive wizardry of Vektor gets incorporated into the Chileans sound. At face value, this is exciting music for any fan of thrash or speed metal. As always though, there is a lot to be said for some adherence to some semblance of control and restraint.

Whilst it is not unheard of that I am alienated by a band’s sound or chosen style, sometimes even by an individual track even, I would not call it a regular occurrence by any means still. In those moments when I detect that sense of “WTF is this?”, then this usually does not bode well for the artist or release concerned. The clarinet is not an instrument many of us would associate with metal music. Its inclusion here on So It Goes is an absolute bolt out of the blue for me and no matter how hard I try to fathom the rationale behind its appearance, I cannot attribute any reasonable logic to it. It just seems like one of the band members plays the clarinet as well as guitar and so they have included it on the album. It holds no place on the record for me beyond setting some element of atmosphere. Its timbre is too bold and the texture it induces is too warm for the aesthetic of the music Demoniac play. What annoys me even more is that there is no need for the band to try and make themselves stand out by way of such a gimmick. Demoniac can play. Some of their lead work is mindboggling. Their vocals are perfect for blackened thrash and that drummer certainly knows his way around his kit too. Hell, even the bassist can make their presence known without taking over whole sections of tracks with progressive wankery.

I cannot say the clarinet rules my experience of the record, there’s far too much high level, well played, intense thrash metal being played here for that. However, it does ruin the album for me overall. It is just so unnecessary an addition and it retains an almost anarchical presence when considered with the rest of the record. So much potential here as well but this one is destined for the lower end of my ratings.  So it goes, indeed.

While Slayer decided that the speed and aggressive of Reign in Blood, other bands decided that this was too soft for them. Dark Angel is one of the bands most known for doing this.
I kind of disagree with this common view of the album. I'm sure on a BPM and note for note level, Darkness Descends is far more aggressive. But Reign in Blood has more factors contributing to it than pure aggression. Darkness Descends has a lot more warmer and less slick elements to it, having more amateurish production. In line more with NWOBHM albums and subsequent early thrash albums not feeling the need to come into a room and scream that they're thrash metal albums. And compared to some later albums in general, this can come off as downright quaint at times.
Which isn't a bad thing, one's creative nature dies when one tries to limit oneself to what "should" be in a genre. Something that bands after Dark Angel would surely fall into, because arguably these guys don't expand on the formula all that much. Which is fine, ceaseless brutality is often boring and renders itself lifeless. In this regard, Darkness Descends comes as a missing link between early thrash and what British thrash would end up sounding like, a balance of the extremes.
But this album does feel a bit style over substance, even for the early years of thrash. Riffs are often of little importance to aggression, which considering the aforementioned, leaves it feeling unmemorable. Despite listening to it a number of times I can barely recall anything beyond a fuzzy feeling once the album is over.
It's a pretty good album, but ultimately you can see the faults that would eventually result in the genre's death for a while.

Released in 2017, ‘Bloodlust’ is the sixth studio album by rap metal band Body Count, the metal project formed by hip hop legend Ice-T. After an eight year hiatus, the band struck back with 2014’s ‘Manslaughter’, an album that was arguably the heaviest thing they’d ever put out, and instantly helped the band gain momentum with their return. This brings us to ‘Bloodlust’, which follows on exactly where its predecessor left off.

Once more pushing the boundaries with how heavy they can get, ‘Bloodlust’ is a non-stop assault of absolutely massive guitar riffs, rapid-fire lyrics spewing pure vitriol and frustration, all packed into 41 minutes of anger, aggression and political statements. 59 year-old Ice-T hasn’t mellowed with age, in fact, he sounds more pissed off than ever, rapping about crime, violence, corruption, and all the usual subjects that he’s been rapping about since the late 80’s, yet sadly, are still as relevant today as they ever were.

It’s insane how monstrously heavy this thing is. Having ramped up their sound and production to fit perfectly with the modern metal landscape, songs like ‘The Ski Mask Way’, ‘Civil War’, ‘All Hope is Lost’, ‘Black Hoodie’ and the title track itself, show a band who are pulling no punches and taking no prisoners. Particular highlight, ‘No Lives Matter’, is probably one of the best songs Body Count has ever written, probably one of their most relevant too. And along with guest appearances by the likes of Dave Mustaine and Max Cavalera, and a cover of the Slayer classic, ‘Raining Blood’, it’s clear that ‘Bloodlust’ is not for the faint of heart.

While there may be a couple of tracks I find fairly passable, overall, this is a very solid album from start to finish. Ice-T and co. have proven that they’re here to stay, and showing with ‘Bloodlust’ that 25 years since their debut, and getting heavier with each release, they still have plenty to say, and are just getting warmed up.

Megadeth produced one of the great albums of the initial thrash metal wave in Peace Sells, but the follow-up was a bit patchy (although I probably like it a lot more than most 'deth heads) so Dave Mustaine was under a bit of pressure to deliver with Rust in Peace. That he managed to do in spades and in so doing delivered one of the most highly acclaimed albums in thrash metal. There are some of the most exciting, hi-octane thrash metal anthems ever written on here. "Holy Wars", "Hangar 18", "Tornado of Souls" and "Rust in Peace... Polaris" must be the envy of almost every thrash metal songwriter.

He is a mercurial character, Dave Mustaine, but when he is on fire then there are very few who can match him and on Rust in Peace he showed exactly what he was capable of and that is producing some of the best riffs and guitar solos in the whole of metal. I must confess Peace Sells is still the Megadeth album that means the most to me and is my go-to 'deth album, but Rust in Peace is nothing short of a phenomenon.

With half an hour or so to kill on a Sunday morning, a thrash record was a perfect fit. A Costa Rican thrash metal in fact, and a none too shabby effort to boot. Having listened to probably a handful of thrash metal at best this year so far, Chemicide with their brazen artwork and equally bold thrash metal made for a welcome breeze through my lugholes this morning. With Costa Rica not being the hotbed of thrash metal of say Chile, it was interesting to hear some quality beyond the borders and shores of that ever increasingly impressive thrash metal nation.

Full of commentary and judgement on social injustice and violence, the band’s fifth full length offering has some real bruising rhythms and cutting edges to those riffs. With vocals straight out of the Mille Petrozza playbook, there’s a solid nod back to the foundations of the sub-genre on display. Placed alongside the racing riffs in the style of Slayer, with equally chaotic solos a la King and Hanneman at the peak of their powers also, Violence Prevails soon makes a name for itself. The drums and rhythm combination often reminds me of Sepultura in their Arise/Chaos A.D. days (that ringing guitar melody on ‘Parasite’ helps also).

The production job permits fullness to the sound across the instrumentation, with only the bass struggling for a bit of space. It is still audible though, just battling away in the background. Listen intently enough and you can hear it plonking away beneath the barrage of riffs that lead the attack for the most part. As you would hope it to be, the title track is a fucking blast end-to-end. This is what a title track should always do; totally underpin the album ethos in one succinct and well-placed moment on the record. With the energy levels already high going into the mid-point of the record, placing a banger in the center is key to advertising the longevity, or peak of the record.

Thankfully, what follows on from the title track represents no dip in energy or quality. If anything, tracks such as the franticly paced ‘Chokehold’ only up the ante on the record. This is not to say that Chemicide just focuses on face-melting intensity to get their message across. I mean, yes, it is an integral part of proceedings, this cannot be denied. However, the band controls the pace and tempos well, without sacrificing the intensity for the most part. The only real cooling-off section is during ‘Supremacy’ with its bass and picked strings opening, which soon give way to chopping riffs as the track builds superbly.

Closing the record with two (three if you have the corresponding version of the album) covers is a move that leaves me lukewarm in comparison to the rest of the record. I have never heard of Los Crudos and so cannot possibly know what justice Chemicide does to the track they cover. Metallica’s ’72 Seasons’ is a track I am vaguely familiar with after I sat through the abomination of the record that the track comes from, and, well…glitter on a turd is a phrase that springs to mind. I won’t let this unfortunate ending ruin what is otherwise a great discovery though, as a standalone record, with their own material, Chemicide are impressive.

Originally released in 1993, ‘Live Shit: Binge & Purge’ is an audio and visual tour de force of live music by Metallica. During the absolute peak of their world tour for 1991’s ‘Metallica’, they released a monstrous box set featuring three different concerts, two on video (later DVD, thankfully) and one on three CD’s.

Having become worldwide megastars with their 1991 self-titled release, the band would go on to tour the world, multiple times for over a staggering three years. Which brings us to the CD’s and the first DVD; the live album part of it is from a show in Mexico City, whilst the DVD is of a similar show from San Diego. Both concerts are fantastic, with excellent performances, sound, and in the case of the DVD, great picture. However, one major downside is the endless “noodling” and messing around between songs.

Yeah, it’s come to be expected, and is pretty harmless enough, but there’s so many random solo spots, messing around, jams, and countless other bits of shameless banter, that after a while, it does wear a bit thin. At one point, there’s 20 minutes of tomfoolery before they start another song, and during ‘Seek and Destroy’ James interacts with the crowd for over ten minutes. It’s fun at first, but after repeated listens, it does get quite boring fast.

Then there’s the second DVD, filmed in Seattle and taken from the bands 1989 tour in support of ‘…And Justice For All’, and this is a fantastic concert. This was a great time for the band as they were still “on the way up”. The playing is incredibly tight, the sound and picture are excellent, especially given the age of the footage, and with a great set list to boot, this random addition to the box set makes it totally worthwhile.

Everyone performs brilliantly on all three concerts. Even Lars, bless him, far from the best drummer in the world, but his boundless enthusiasm and excitement is infectious, and Jason Newsted’s copious amounts of energy makes me sad for how things turned out for him. With around nine hours of content, ‘Live Shit…’ is certainly not for the faint of heart, but overall, any detriments aside, this is an absolute beast of a box set, and truly belongs in every Metallica fans collection.

I really loved Cryptosis debut, Bionic Swarm, it being one of my top albums of 2021. Since then, however, they seem to have dropped off my radar and I am behind on both 2023's The Silent Call EP and this, their full-length follow-up to Bionic Swarm. First impressions are that this is a much less fevered and more progressive album. The debut, despite the science fiction premise, turned in some pretty brutal riffs and blistering tempos for the most part, where this feels to be a more sophisticated affair in the main. Don't get me wrong, this still delivers some great riffing and has some breakneck pacing too, which is obvious as early as the first track proper, "Faceless Matter", but the increasing emphasis on atmospherics such as synths and jangling tremolo embellishments lends it a more expansive aura, rather than the tight, jet-fuelled blowtorch attack of the debut. With vocalist Laurens Houvast favouring a more black metal style of delivery this time around, alongside the atmospherics, it leads me to ponder whether the band were aiming for a kind of thrash metal Emperor sound, a question worthy of consideration I think.

Subsequent listens, when the atmospherics had had time to sit with me and so not stand out so much, it was more than evident that the tightly focussed core of the band's sound is still present and correct, delivering supercharged riffs and blistering drumming that drives the tracks forward at a hyperkinetic tempo. This time round, though, Cryptosis are unafraid to slow down and allow the listener time to catch up, take stock and appreciate exactly what is going on around them. Static Horizon, for example, kicks off at a fair old lick, with absolutely loads going on: a melodic and memorable main riff, a prominent bassline doing all sorts of interesting things and jangling leads, keyboards and choral effects providing a thick atmosphere. Then for the last minute the pacing slows and the keys provide a serene calm eye in which the listener can process the previous four minutes.

Assuredly this is still a technical / progressive thrash metal release, but the vocals and jangling tremolo leads give it a decidedly frosty atmosphere that more than dips its toes into black metal waters. I am undecided at the moment whether this difference in atmospherics makes this a better album than Bionic Swarm or not. Or it could be that they are equally great, just... different. Everything I loved about the debut is still here, but it has been refined by an increase in atmospherics and a slight shift in songwriting aspirations. I haven't yet decided if that has blunted its effect or enhanced it, so for now I must sit on the fence with this one, although it is still pretty good, no matter what - I'm just not sure how good.

The Russian cyber/industrial metal scene has spawned a few cool bands like Illidiance. A more lesser-known band, Conflиct practically revives the groove-fueled industrial metal of mid-90s Fear Factory. I'm familiar with the vocals of Anna Hel from her guest appearances with Mechina, so let's find out if she has that strength in this album....

Conflиct has diverse maturity in their songwriting. The blend of industrial and groove is quite fresh and is different from how other bands do it. I enjoy Anna Hel's growls here, filled with emotion and passion. However, her cleans rely a little too much on autotune and almost come out as unnatural. I'm glad her contributions with Mechina involve just her growls. The riffing is often djenty, though they sometimes soften in the background to let the vocals shine.

"Circular Transition" displays that sound right away. The catchy heavy-melodic blend is similar to other bands like Amaranthe and Raintime. Anna Hel can perform her deep barks and softer singing quite well here. The djenty riffing doesn't cease in "Low Frequency Addicted". Then "Impulse Control Disorder" continues the brutality while having melodic sections that are like a more futuristic Trail of Tears. Next track "Mechanism of Life" is a true winning highlight. It sounds nicely like a sequel to the title track of Mechina's "The Assembly of Tyrants", along with having a Xerath-esque blend of symphonics and groove elements. I also love the anthemic chorus.

"Rebuild the Parasite" is another killer banger. Ambient electronic interlude "Lost Signal" is quite fascinating. It's a nice under 3-minute dystopian audio experience. "Red Line" has catchy melody alongside the industrial heaviness of late Red Harvest. "Half Man, Half Machine" has more of the djenty machinery. Keep in mind though that there's more of the industrial side of the sound to balance things out.

"Infinite Travel" is more deathly than the rest, similar to both Obscura and Omnium Gatherum, though there's still the usual melodic chorus. "The Elements of a New Era" is a perfect exploration through the more progressive side of the industrial/groove metal sound, and the vocals are better here. "Invisible Thread" has the most of the band's Fear Factory influences, maybe even Voivod, along with some deathly ideas from Becoming the Archetype and early Bleed from Within. The 14-minute ambient "Transformation" never really does much, but it's still good at some points. Some editions have a bonus track that is a wicked cover of the unreleased Fear Factory track "Ammunition".

It's actually quite cool how much of a master Anna Hel is at covering Fear Factory songs. She has also covered "New Breed" and "Zero Signal", the latter with The Last Bear Ender. Anyway, Conflиct have their cinematic djent-ish industrial groove metal sound going on that intrigues me. For those wanting more of the heavier side of Sybreed but with a female vocalist, I would recommend this offering. And I'm up to hearing more of Anna Hel's vocals. Well, mostly her growls....

Favorites: "Circular Transition", "Mechanism of Life", "Rebuild the Parasite", "Half Man, Half Machine", "The Elements of a New Era", "Invisible Thread"

Alright, back to my Canadian thrash exploration.

I know its been a while since the last time I did one of these, but scheduling changes means that some trends that I really enjoy need to take a backseat for a little while. Invicta just happened to be one of those acts that just fell under the radar, but given the bands ability on this sophomore album, I'm shocked it took this long to get here. Triumph and Torment represents a side of thrash metal that I have been far more lenient towards in recent years, but also never got around to exploring the genre beyond introductions and passing recommendations. Technical thrash metal, like with tech-death, is a genre that is frequently paired with progressive metal since it borrows heavily from that genre with its uncommon time signatures, pin-point precise songwriting and guitar solo noodling. And Triumph and Torment does have plenty of that.

Where Invicta stick the landing for me is that these songs do not sound like a random assortment of riffs that were thought of once while jamming and the band decided they were going to include it on the next album. The riffing does change in style and tempo throughout each track, but they are never these one-and-done techniques employed by so many modern thrash metal acts. Not only are the riffs constant, and make the songs recognizable from one another, but they also rarely sound like audio whiplash. The obvious examples here are on "Embodiment of Infamy" and "Apprentice of Death" where the riffing remains strong throughout an entire tune and they don't resort to solo wankery to hide the fact that they don't know how to end a song.

The cause and effect of this is the songs on Triumph and Torment sound complete. It reminds me a lot of the classic Metallica records from the 1980s; tunes are undoubtedly extended, but as a listener, I never felt like I was wasting my time with these riffs. I could always count on Invicta on bringing back a strong chorus that would connect the extended verse/bridge back to the main theme. All the while it's being performed and produced with a remarkable consistency. The album does have a couple of hiccups in regards to loud/soft dichotomy between songs, but the sound of the record is not only ferocious, but powerful thanks to a strong bass foundation and a tasteful percussion element. 

For me, it is records like Triumph and Torment that make me want to get back into the more extreme side of metal music. Because while this album does sound melodically pleasing, it is far removed from the Anthrax and Testament that I normally enjoy in thrash. As a soundscape, Triumph and Torment is closer to Vektor or early Revocation. Songwriting is closer to that of Kreator. With recent reviews for Skeletonwitch, Carcass and now Invicta, I can start to like technical thrash/death metal instead of just "appreciating" it. And with them being so close to home, I cannot help but wonder what kind of rabbit hole this may take me down.

Best Songs: Battle the Beyond, The Morning's Light, The New Throne, Apprentice of Death, Parasitic Reign

Released in 2007, Megadeth’s compilation boxset, ‘Warchest’, is an absolute tour-de-force of material. A great collectable for fans, you’ve got four discs of music and a DVD, which covers a huge variety of original songs, covers, demos, live recordings, and everything else in between.

The first three discs are compilations running in chronological order through the bands career. Interspersed with live tracks, demos, remixes, live recordings and short interludes of Dave Mustaine talking, they cover every aspect of the band, from 1985’s ‘Killing is My Business…’ all the way up to 2004’s ‘The System Has Failed’. This is a fantastic starting point for newcomers to the band, or a great retrospective for long-time fans.

My only real complaint here is that most of the songs are the 2004 remasters. Not that it’s that big of an issue, but personally, I think a lot of these tracks sounded better in their original versions.

Disc four is a live concert from Wembley Stadium in 1990. Shortly after the release of ‘Rust in Peace’, this is thrash-era Megadeth at their best, and the live recording proves that. And finally, disc five is a live DVD, shot in 1992. Admittedly, I love Megadeth, but live, I do find them a little boring. They kind of play the songs, and that’s it. Occasionally they headbang, but they don’t really seem overly animated. Still, the sound and picture are great, and at barely 50 minutes in duration, it’s a totally harmless watch, and more than worthy of belonging in this boxset.

Die-hard fans will want this for any unreleased tracks, in particular, discs four and five. Accompanied with a 36-page booklet, and beautiful 3D packaging, this is a fantastic set, and while it might seem a little dated by today, the absolute wealth of material makes it a must-have for fans.

Here we are again. Another Machine Head album, another handful of tracks to unpick, another round of discerning if Robb has settled on any direction this time around. By now notorious for injecting virulent amounts of nu-metal, alt metal and even rap metal into their music, any new record from MH certainly gets greeted with the guard somewhat up. My absolute horror at the shitshow that was Catharsis from seven years ago was probably the peak of my derision with Flynn’s continued dilution of their core groove metal sound. Sitting here in 2025, I felt kind of desensitised to anything that Unatoned could throw at me, and so listening to the usual plethora of styles being blended across a lengthy twelve tracks did have me once again rolling my eyes in frustration that the skip button was out of reach.

During the first quarter of the 21st century, there has been no thrash metal band that has piqued my interest in the genre quite like Skeletonwitch. They have been one of my most consistently solid bands in the genre since I really started paying attention around 2007, and only grew in popularity for me when I started to embrace the more extreme of the metal subgenres around 2010. Skeletonwitch's brand of old school Iron Maiden riffs, modified with faster grooves, a healthy dose of death metal guttural vocals and a sprinkle of black metal tossed in just to keep you guessing. Beyond the Permafrost was not my first exposure to this band, but after hearing it in full again, it really gets to the crux of my main concern with thrash metal as a whole.

And that concern is in the songwriting. Yeah, I can admit that Beyond the Permafrost can be a bit one-note at times, especially the longer it goes on, but that one-note mentality allows for this album to be far more concise than a typical thrash metal album. Skeletonwitch do not waste any time here as songs are concise and poignant. Guitar does play an integral role here, but the guitar solos are quick, technically impressive and get us back to the meat-and-potatoes expediently, while the main riffs almost take the form of an earworm considering how many times you hear them played over such a short period of time. 

Given that Skeletonwitch are not a full fledged tribute/homage band to the early "extreme" thrash giants like Slayer and Possessed, the album does have some variety. You will hear the occasional blast beat in the percussion, but they serve primarily as fills and embellishment rather than forming the grooves. What makes the comparisons make sense is when Skeletonwitch break out into a black metal riff with open chordal guitar harmonies and slower percussion grooves. While songs like "Remains of the Defeated" serve as too much of a good thing as well as an interlude, it isn't like the drastic style change is out-of-pocket, since Skeletonwitch have been embracing these types of grooves throughout the record. 

One thing that I would love for Skeletonwitch to embrace would be a couple of longer songs to show off their songwriting capability over an extended timeframe. The bands most recent album, Devouring Radiant Light does exactly that and would serve as quality, complimentary listening material if you find this album to be too simple for its own sake. As for me, I like the simplicity of Beyond the Permafrost more than most and pieces of it reminds me of early Kreator and more recently, Power Trip and Enforced. 

Best Songs: Sacrifice for the Slaughtergod, Beyond the Permafrost, Cast into the Open Sea, Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery, Within My Blood

I don't know what enticed Orbit Culture to begin their album with a constant pulsing of the Inception atom drop on "Black Mountain", but it sounded terrible and set a really bad first impression for their album, Descent. Unfortunately, the production blunders do not end here, as Orbit Culture are undoubtedly caught up in the metalcore/deathcore craze of blasting every instrumental part up to eleven on the soundboard, and letting all of the instrumentalists fight for their time in the spotlight. The percussion is severely overcooked; any time the double bass kick pedal takes shape, the sheer repetitiveness and rate at which they strike pushes everything else to the back. One moment that truly stuck out for me was during the second half of "From the Inside", which at first, I thought could be a pretty decent djent infused song. But then the softer bridge kicked in with this unsavory synth lead. This is followed by a return of the metal foundation, with vocals, and dueling guitar solos. It's just too much stuff going on and none of it is allowed to take center stage.

The albums length is also a big determent. Averaging five-plus minutes per song is not an inherent bad thing, but when more than half of them sound half cooked is when you know something is wrong. The album begins with "Black Mountain", which would have been okay if not for the Inception sound effects. Then both "Sorrower" and "From the Inside" are both over six minutes long, but the main idea ends after only four. That leaves Orbit Culture with another third of the song to fill in with other space. And, like in metalcore, that space is filled with an unrelated riff and an unprepared new melody. If you're band is going to do this, at least put in some effort to make the two parts work together. Otherwise, they just sound half-assed. When "Vultures of North", "Alienated" and "Descent" come on, they are stronger songs with good forms, okay melodies and a smaller collection of sounds conversing at the same time. The production is still hit-and-miss, but I'll take the positive songwriting over poor production.

But Orbit Culture keeps bringing back the patchy songwriting for the albums conclusion (and obnoxious instrumental choices) for the finale of the record and leaves this album feeling a little bit hollow. It's almost like the band wanted to try something more experimental, which I appreciate, but they didn't know how to do it well. Maybe this band should return to the basics of melodic death metal and really embolden their fundamentals before expanding further. I mean, they have already proven that they can with pieces of Descent, but now they need to bring them to the surface for a full album.

Best Songs: Vultures of North, The Aisle of Fire, Descent

Fledgling to the metal scene, coming across this album wasn't anything out of the ordinary; an opinion I held till watching Welcome to your funeral a documentary on the early day's of rigor mortis, and with another re-listen to the album, I can for sure say this album is a favorite of mine.

From the sheer gritty descent of welcome to our funeral, to the brutal slap of demons waking to your new residence hell and it's inhabitants. Rigor Mortis, really opens quite strongly. Other tracks like re-animator, condemned to hell, and foaming at mouth really give the album a fun kick and bash that gets you going.

The big track for me bodily dismemberment, just has the staple thrash feel of brutal lyrics, pounding drums, fast riffs, and unsettling vocals that really gets the ya groovin.

Props to Mike Scaccia, guy has some crazy picking skill accompanied with killer riffs.

Casey Orr is a beast of a bass player.

Harden Harrison the fucking back bone.

Bruce Corbitt the spirit and soul.

R.I.P Rigor Mortis

3 and a half years is a long-ish gap between two albums, and some listeners might've forgotten about Alien Weaponry and their unique Maori metal sound until their new album came out. Then again, there was almost that same gap between their two other albums Tu and Tangaroa. Many fans of Alien Weaponry still remember them, and they continue their memorable path with Te Ra!

This young band has maintained their groove/alt-metal band with a bit of djent, thrash, and of course, their native music. The lyrics alternate between English and the Maori language. Their sound continues to evolve, and so does their popularity when going festival after festival.

Crashing through the gates is the thrashy "Crown" with thick layered production. Culture shall not weigh them down! Following up is the single "Mau Moko" with sick music and lyrics, as the verses deal with ancestors' preserved heads. The band's experience with history is what helps the band stand out a lot. "1000 Friends" is a killer banger with some accessibility. The perils of social media are detailed well in the lyrics. We have another thunderous banger in "Hanging by a Thread".

"Tama-nui-te-ra" has some Gojira vibes. "Myself to Blame" has slow sludgy groove. The vocal power of Lewis Raharuhi de Jong help make that track an epic highlight. Getting into "Taniwha", it's darker and heavier, featuring guest narration and vocals by Lamb of God's Randy Blythe.

Storming in lyrics against war, "Blackened Sky" continues expanding the band's boundaries. "Te Riri o Tawhirimatea" is one of the most deathly tracks the band has done. "Ponaturi" stomps around with the nu metal-ish contrast of melodic verses and heavy choruses. "Te Kore" is a short different ending track, a slow percussive march while Maori origins are described in the lyrics. The live crowd might just march along and pound their chests like gorillas.

Alien Weaponry is not a band to sell out, and they've proven that with some more of their top-notch Maori metal in Te Ra. These young New Zealanders keep putting their passion and emotion into the work, as a reward for their longtime followers!

Favorites: "Mau Moko", "1000 Friends", "Myself to Blame", "Taniwha", "Ponaturi", "Te Kore"

As I waded waist deep into new black metal releases this year, a new album from Cryptosis raised an eyebrow when I spotted it in my search list. I double checked to ensure I had not tagged technical/progressive thrash metal into the criteria by mistake, but as it turns out the black metal aspects of Celestial Death are not even all that subtle. Vocalist Laurens Houvast has gone a few degrees colder with his grim voice on this album. This when put in the mix with some cloying atmospherics, Burzum style chimes (check out ‘Absent Presence’ for a dose of Filosofem), jangling tremolos and melodies all makes for a harsh and abrasive experience.

The mellotron is back again and this and the synthesisers do an excellent job of scoring the air around them with a futuristic, dystopian sorrow. That’s not to say that Celestial Death is an entirely slow and atmospheric outing, far from it in fact. The Dutch trio manage to add lots of bite to proceedings and fans of their debut album will welcome this; I am sure. That rabid pacing is still present and tracks like ‘The Silent Call’ manage to balance that scathing attack with the depth of the synths well. In short, Cryptosis’ sophomore is a cracker.

It did take a couple of listens for me to settle down with the action here. My first listen was whilst working and I had thrown this on to get some thrash going in the background and quickly found myself focusing more on the cold and melodic aspect of the record instead. Once I got a couple of more critical listens under my belt, things started to right-size for me a lot quicker. Celestial Death is a very mature sounding record, one that builds on the promise of the debut from some four years ago superbly. The guitar notes on the opening of ‘Reign of Infinite’ positively dance with excitement and the balance between the riffs and the synths and then the percussion is excellent.

I could do with a little more weight in the drums on the mix, but I still feel Marco Prij does a great job, pacing his patterns as the soundscape that continues to unfold requires him to. Houvast’s guitar work is great throughout. It is vibrant one minute, then cold and jarring the next. I have no major criticisms here in all honesty. I am still a little confused by the black thrash combo that relies more on atmospherics above all other things to emphasise that cold influence and it does still feel a little strange adding this into my The North list for 2025. However, it is absolutely a valid entry and is one of the best releases of the year so far regardless of which sub-genre sits as its driving force.

You know what, I really need to get into more industrial-tinged melodeath. The music made by Cypecore is so good, that I want more of it from different bands. Fear of Domination, perhaps? Anyway, if Identity was a small step up, The Alliance is a big leap that has never let me down. More common listening for me coming my way!

This is the final album with Tobias Derer (drums), Evan K (guitars), and Chris Heckel (bass) before Chris' death. RIP... What a shame, because they're all so talented, and Tobias is such a captivating drummer. Lots of technical rhythms and blasts striking through with no flash, all substance. His drumming is a solid fit to the riffing of Evan K. and Nils Lesser, having an industrial vibe that is also heard in the occasional background synths.

The "Intro" aspect may have been overdone, but it's so short and doesn't affect much. The title track blasts off as an intense battle-ready banger full of djent-ish riffing. The melodic "Dissatisfactory" has a more gloomy flow. It's filled with lengthy complexity that makes it memorable. So is "Dreamsmasher", also having cleanliness from Dagoba.

We also have the diverse "Aeons" with its haunting siren-like guitar leads. "Reject the Stream" rips through with nothing wrong. 7-minute epic "Remembrance" that shows the band at their most atmospheric and progressive. The best one here! "The Voice of Conviction" has some melody from metalcore bands like Unearth and Killswitch Engage.

"Leviathan" is another one of the best tracks in the album, having more melodic guitarwork with some background keys. Vocalist Dominic Christoph sounds fantastic going from harsh to whispers to shouted singing. Everyone's talent shines the best in this heavy/melodic blend. "Values of Death" is like the opposite of their earlier track "Values of Life". After that, "The Gift of Failure" never fails, having some melodeath from Mercenary and early Shadows Fall. The "Outro" is OK, not affecting the album's perfection.

All in all, The Alliance is a perfect balance of the band's past and future, similarly to how A Wake in Providence's Eternity turned out for that band. All before each band's 2024 album takes a more too-pompous-to-enjoy-all route. I shall be giving The Alliance more spins in the future. Despite their unfortunate losses, Cypecore shall not fall!

Favorites: "The Alliance", "Dissatisfactory", "Aeons", "Remembrance", "Leviathan", "The Gift of Failure"

Sometimes the most wonderful and spectacular bands end up being so underrated. I can say that about Cypecore and any band that's either cyber metal of symphonic deathcore (of course, Lorna Shore is too popular to be underrated). This German futuristic melodeath/groove metal band continues their journey with album #3 Identity!

It's easy to describe this band as a more modernized industrial-ish take on Gothenburg melodeath, but they can be more than that. They can expand the boundaries of their sound to add some fresh uniqueness. At the time of recording this album, guitarist Nils Lesser and drummer Tobias Derer were part of symphonic metal band Beyond the Black. After Identity and that band's second album Lost in Forever came out, Lesser and Derer left Beyond the Black and focused on their main band.

The ominous "Intro" begins the album. Then "Saint of Zion" impresses me with its guitar/keyboard fury to get me hooked. "Where the World Makes Sense" is another powerful anthem. "My Confession" is more melodic, throwing back to classic Fear Factory.

Heads will roll in "Hollow Peace", and you can never turn away from it. The title track attacks with the usual blend of melody and heaviness. "Drive" continues the crushing sound while having some driving speed. The clean-sung "A New Dawn" is one of the best tracks I've heard from this band and the groove/melodeath realms.

"The Abyss" is the only track in this album I would consider weak here without bringing the rating down. The same can almost be said about "The Void" which is a little more rock-ish. The "Outro" goes on for too long and is a little unnecessary. Fortunately, saving the album from losing its 4.5-star rating is the popular bonus track "The Hills Have Eyes". If this was in the standard edition as a regular track, and the previous 3 tracks weren't included, this offering would've been 100% perfect.

Odd tracks aside, Identity shows Cypecore unleashing amazing hits that tear down the walls of conventionality. They stand out amongst the sea of Gothenburg copycats. Nils Lesser is still committed to Cypecore and keeping the band alive, and maybe their future will be more successful!

Favorites: "Saint of Zion", "Where the World Makes Sense", "My Confession", "Identity", "A New Dawn", "The Hills Have Eyes"