“For my money, Vindicator was always underrated re-thrash, notwithstanding my concern about their collective understanding of monetary policy. Nearly 10 years later, the brothers Stown (Vic on guitars and vox and Jesse on drums) have reunited to bring us a new slab of post-Bay Area re-thrash called Communal Decay. What ensues is not surprising, but it’s teeming with old school riffing and features a short and sweet 31-minute runtime.” Did you miss it? We sure as hell did.
Re-Thrash
Critical Defiance – Misconception Review
“Critical Defiance have learned well from their predecessors, but they are a modern thrash band with a few new thoughts, two Felipes, and a zillion riffs.” A Nameless N00b is here to regale you with a story about Chilean “retro” thrash that isn’t retro, but is definitely thrash.
Perpetratör – Altered Beast Review
“You can accuse me of being a jaded, cynical bastard and I wouldn’t disagree, but I fucking love thrash so the genre’s often stagnant modern scene leaves me underwhelmed. So can the firebrands of Perpetratör help restore the faith or are they merely hurtling towards a copyright lawsuit?” Rise from your grave!
Distillator – Summoning the Malicious Review
“Thrash has deflowered many a metal virgin over the years, myself included. As such, regardless of the modern state of the thrash metal scene, it’s easy to fall back into cozy nostalgia, despite my belief that the majority of thrash bands are caught in a perpetual loop of attempting to rehash the genre’s past glories and ’80s heyday rather than forging their own path of destruction. Pulling strands from the much pillaged Bay Area thrash scene of the ’80s, spiked with whiffs of old school Slayer and Destruction, Distillator go about their business with minimum fuss and plenty of throwback thrash attitude and tightly executed chops.” Distillation was never this heavy.
Entrench – Violent Procreation Review
“I got a bit sidetracked while writing this review trying to chart the rise of rethrash (thanks Encyclopaedia Metallum!). Since 2003, the proportion of thrash albums to all metal albums released per year has, perhaps surprisingly, stayed constant at around 16%. However, the proportion of new thrash bands to new metal bands forming per year (going back to 1995) peaked at 23% in 2006, and had shrunk to 14% last year. Entrench formed just prior to peak thrash in 2005, releasing a string of demos before unleashing their debut full length, Inevitable Decay, in 2011. What can my thrashnalysis tell us about their music? Fuck all really, but it’s some pretty good trivia, eh?” When the numbers geeks get into the metal review business, you get thrashnalysis. Just go with it and take copious notes.
Pessimist – Death from Above Review
“The artwork is so typical and the title, silly and banal as hell. Even a cursory glance at the pointy band logo should immediately hint at which metal sub-genre this band belongs to, but hang on for a second and hold back that derisive snort…” Oh no!? What’s Happy Metal Guy going to say? The suspense has got to be killing you…
Dust Bolt – Violent Demolition Review
Hop in your skull tank! Break out your brewskis! We’re back with more re-thrash in the shape of Kreator worshipping Dust Bolt!