![Howling Giant – The Space Between Worlds [Things You Might Have Missed 2019]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Howling_Giant-The_Space_Between_Worlds-768x768.jpg)
“A true sleeper hit in every sense of the word, The Space Between Worlds’ style may not be the most innovative, but damn is it tasty. Introducing themselves with three tauntingly brief EP’s since 2015, including the hella fun two-part Black Hole Space Wizard arc, Nashville trio Howling Giant fuses the fuzz of stoner doom with the ambition of prog rock.” Between rock and a vast space.
“You’re here for a reason. You’re on a quest. A quest for music to bang your fukkin head to. Sometimes you find the music, sometimes the music finds you. There, buried in a particularly large online order a couple years ago, was a free copy of Excuse’s 2016 EP Goddess Injustice. I slid the vinyl from its sleeve and a spectral form descended from the heavens. “YOU!” It boomed. “Me?” I said. “YOU. You are the chosen one. Drop the needle. Turn up the stereo. And BANG. YOUR. FUKKIN. HEAD.”” Always obey the disembodied voice!
“Although we all love and respect the genre’s marvelous ’80s heyday and the myriad of timeless albums that particular decade produced, thrash shouldn’t just be some endless fucking nostalgia trip either. Necropanther probably released the best thrashy album I heard last year, but it doesn’t exactly qualify as straight-up thrash either. Meanwhile the future of the mighty Vektor remains clouded in uncertainty. But I’m determined to forage around the promo portal throughout the year and hopefully stumble across a thrash album deserving of high praise. Perhaps a new shining light to guide us to a pot of gold at the end of the thrash rainbow.” Light the fusion.
“In just over a month I’ll be celebrating (with metalcore, most likely) my fifth year writing for Angry Metal Guy’s family feedbag, and what better way to do that than with the latest LP from Boston’s own prog-death-thrash torchbearers, Revocation. My review of their self-titled album way back in 2013 was the first of my many ill-bred proclamations from these servers to you, and the band have done me a solid by producing material at a pace brisk enough to suit biennial navel-gazing.” Revoked.
“Our resident Gungan evangelist recently posited a view in the AMG Slack group that has had me thinking a lot about why I don’t listen to a lot of straight thrash metal anymore. His view that the genre feels invalidated by Metallica’s best records, though initially seeming blasphemous, eventually became gospel to my ears. I’d personally swap Metallica for Kreator, but in essence, I’m completely in agreement with this stance; beyond notable experimental exceptions like Skeletonwitch or Vektor, modern thrash metal in its base form is inherently shallow, with bands failing almost universally to validate their existence among the classic acts. But sometimes – sometimes – everything just falls into place.” Thrash infection.
“I’ll begin with what Fragarak get right. Their music is a hodgepodge of influences from Opeth, Vektor, and Obscura, two of whom are really worth being influenced by.” We don’t discuss influences with fans.
“Delving between sofa cushions, peering into cupboards, kicking over rocks — we music scribes are always searching for the next band that that can bring joy into our pitiful existence. Doing so involves wading through the primordial soup of unknown metal acts, straining to spy a wolf among the bleating of listless mutton. This often plays out as a feedback loop that begins with the hope of discovering something special, followed by despair when our expectations are dashed and, finally, hope again when we give in to the gambler’s fallacy and convince ourselves that the next promo will be the one.” Onward, Toby, onward.
“Kill! is most largely occupied by thrash influences but splices in death growls, hardcore sneers and the occasional slower, dirgier riff. The staccato style of djent also features, particularly in the introductory riffs to a number of tracks. The two bands I hear most are Kreator and Meshuggah, rendering it established in the modern day but definitely facing backwards.” Crippers and blood.
“One of my earliest review assignments here at Angry Metal Guy was for the sophomore album from unsigned Orange County thrashers Madrost. With the benefit of hindsight I was a tad generous with the scoring, however,Into the Aquatic Sector proved a highly competent and ripping affair of sci-fi themed retro thrash, bolstered by death and prog elements. Fast forward to 2017 and Madrost is back for another round of thrashing fun, but this time the musical quotient has been flipped.” Sector Vektor eat them all.
“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.
