Review by Sonny for Zerre - Rotting on a Golden Throne (2026)
I love thrash metal and I love punk rock but, in truth, I am not all that enthusiastic about crossover thrash. Maybe I haven't heard the right albums as a quick look at my ratings sees me amassing less than 20, so I can hardly call myself an expert. One of my problems with crossover thrash is that far too often it just doesn't seem serious and feels like more of a "party" sub-genre like glam metal. Even outside of fatally unfunny shit like SOD, bands like Gama Bomb, DRI and The Accüsed sound a bit frivolous to me. Before you all call me out on this, I know that this is probably an unreasonable stance to take and you may well be justified in calling me a miserable old fucker, but it is genuinely how I feel. All that said, I am more than happy to say that Zerre have blown that stance completely out of the water with "Rotting on a Golden Throne".
One thing is for sure, these guys are deadly serious about this shit. Having begun life as a hardcore punk outfit, they definitely have the grounding in the punk side of things, bringing a serious level of hardcore aggression and vitality to proceedings. Despite their punk origins, however, they don't come up short in the metal department either with some barnstorming riffs and quite thrilling soloing from dual guitarists Dominik and Rocco. Interestingly, vocalist Nico Ziska, who was previously bassist with black metallers Der Weg einer Freiheit, is not the singer from their punk rock days, yet he still has quite an aggrressive, bellowing vocal style that may lead you to assume he had a previous grounding in hardcore. The gang backing vocals are also expertly handled and don't ever come off as lame or naff, which can't always be said about a crossover album The speed and aggression never lets up and I can imagine a pit at a Zerre show is a hell of a place to be.
The tightness of this five-man outfit is certainly impressive and the guys are evidently skilled musicians, the two leads in particular impressing with their abilities, both technically and artistically. These are genuinely some of the best, high-octane thrash riffs I have heard from outside of Chile for quite some time. The drumming on final track "No Alibi" is also some of the most Animalistic (as in the Muppet drummer) craziness I have heard on a thrash track. There isn't really a weak track on the album, but the run of four tracks from "Deception of the Weak" through to the title track is just insanely good. It is still early days yet, but I am becoming increasingly convinced that this is my all-time favourite crossover album (unless "Among the Living" counts).