Reactory - Collapse to Come (2020)^{Release ID: 26556}

Spurred on by my recent foray into death/thrash (see my Schizophrenia review this past week) I have been on the hunt for anything to scratch my love of extreme and energetic thrash metal of late.   Germany's Reactory are a raging torrent of ripping and rampant thrash metal that will take your face clean of the front of your head if you aren't careful.  Their third full length in six years comes out of the blocks like an Olympic sprinter on acid.  Razor sharp riffing and ear-catching anthemic rhythms and tempos are the order of the day here.  Tracks explode into existence and don't stick around for long enough to let any dust settle from the initial blast plume.  With no track clocking in at over 4 minutes 48 seconds, the band's intentions are quite clear.

Tracks such as Graves of Concrete are where the band really hit their groove, producing memorable yet unbelievably intense thrash metal that is as breath-taking as it infectious.  The energy levels are high and the style is rooted firmly in thrash metal as opposed to too much in the way of speed or blackened influences seeping through.  Vocally, Hans Hazard (yes, really) has a sort of gruff, almost hardcore leaning influence to his particular style.  It works though, reminding me ever so slightly of Hammerlord.

The guitar work at times touches Vektor like melodies (opening to Drone Commander) showing a respectful nod to contemporaries as well as the obvious copious amounts of Teutonic thrash metal from the history of their fine nation itself.  In some ways I want more lead work alongside the Anthrax-like riffage to break up the wall of chug that charges head on into me most of the time, just to break it up a little and towards the backend of the record they do seem to come alive more on the lead front.  However, this is the real appeal of this record in so many ways also - it isn't supposed to be pretty or delivering lashes of flair, it's just here to kick the living crap out of the listener.

Tracks like Evolving Hate do manage to showcase the wizardry on the six strings well and do so without getting too showy or detracting away from that raging intensity.  In all honesty it is hard to find any bad tracks or find fault in general.  For a band that so clearly set their stall out early on, Reactory don't waiver once in their devotion to that commitment to delivering a killer thrash metal record.  I would like to hear the drums just a tad further forward in the mix personally but they do still contribute very well overall to the record.