“By now it’s well known throughout the Midwest that this old man is a thrash junkie. A bona fide Gally Thrashicanus. Before putting a thrash album on, my eyes begin to gleam with a wild and ravenous light. But not so much with the new crop of thrash metal bands like Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and Bonded By Blood, what with their crisp clean high tops and head bands. I like the grit, the grime, the grisly thrash metal of yore.” Old folks like old stuff.
“Ah, Krisiun. Your militant drumming, battering riffs, and enraged vocals have earned you a place on quite a few of my “wake up the neighbors” playlists over the years. While calling you an institution may be a stretch, you’re certainly a band of workhorses, belching out no-bullshit death metal as a fraternal trio since 1990, and serving as a constant reminder that Brazil is more than just nice tushes, dense rainforests, and a Terry Gilliam film about a dystopian bureaucracy that would make FEMA shiver.” The angry wind came blowing in, from across the sea….
“Greece has churned out some pretty incredible music over the last few decades. After one album and a few splits, Kult of Taurus arrives with Adversarial Paths: The Sinister Essence, hoping to join their brethren in the pits of Hades….” Greece is the hotbed of black metal and economic crisis.
“”Emphatic Music.” This is how the PDF file describes the accompanying Cromagia, the third album by Italian septet In Tormentata Quiete, in which the band blends theatricality, black metal, and progressive folk elements into a heady mixture. According to the bio, Cromagia revolves around the concept that our existence is colored by emotions, and the music explains how these songs are an interpretation of said colors. So is this a melting pot of the prismatic rainbow colors of humanity, or is it just a puddle of crayons left out in the sun for too damn long?” Roy Gee Biv and all the chromatic death crew are here to paint you a memory.
“There is a car parked in my neighborhood that has Sepultura, Soulfly and Cavalera Conspiracy stickers on the back window. I see it every day, and I can’t help but feel bad for whoever the owner is. Not just because he probably has a closet full of urban-camo shorts, but because he has been holding out on a lost cause.” The Cavalera brothers are back and we’ve made Mr. Fisting go with them. Hilarity ensues.
“Nostril Caverns is a bizarre entity for more reasons than the incredible name. It’s the creative repository for one Chris Balch’s musical outpourings – he plays all the instruments and vocalizes – which over the past few years have included records of free jazz improv, tech-grind, noise, and a concept album about couples eating dinner at a restaurant. At this point you’re probably wondering whether Mr. Balch’s lack of band-mates is entirely of his own choosing.” This guy did a metal My Dinner With Andre? Now I can die in peace because I’ve heard it all.
“You know, we just don’t review enough thrash metal anymore. It’s all that damn death metal we waste our days discussing. It makes us forget the simple joys of a speedy, jacked up dose of aural frenzy ripped right from 1986. Luckily for us all, Dust Bolt is around to remind us, and their sophomore album Awake the Riot is designed with German precision to do just what the title says. As on their Violent Demolition debut, these chaps rock a hybrid of Kreator circa Extreme Aggression and Coma of Souls and the classic Bay Area sound, especially Slayer.” Ready to drop your retro cash on some retro thrash?
“Reductivity is hard to resist when reviewing a band like the Italian death/thrash 4-piece Omnivore. If I were lazier, my review of their self-titled debut would be comprised entirely of Youtube links to various songs by Sadus, Kreator, Demolition Hammer and early Sepultura. I’d be a jerk, but accurate nonetheless.” JF Williams is a jerk, but he’s our jerk, so it’s okay. BTW, here’s more re-thrash.
“The name Sepultura carries a lot of baggage these days. A decade and a half after the band’s split with frontman Max Cavalera, the word is synonymous with wasted potential, increasingly questionable legitimacy, and diminishing musical returns. Every album is touted as a “comeback” or return-to-form of some kind, but never quite lives up to the hype, leading to renewed calls for the band’s end — or even worse, total indifference.” After a long-term case study, Mr. Fisting has determined that the mediator between Sepultura and good music must not be Ross Robinson.
“Alright, full Angry Metal Confession time: back in the day, I actually enjoyed the first Soulfly album. To my drug-addled brain, Max Cavalera and co. had created an interesting blend of exotic world music and utterly shitheaded nu-metal. “Eye For An Eye” and “Fire” still kick ass, and a lot of the record is unintentionally hilarious (sample lyric: “No bullshit/No slave ship/No muthafuckin’ Hootie and the Blowfish!”). Many years and countless lineup changes later, Cavalera remains the creative force behind a heavier, more self-conscious Soulfly. The band’s core sound remains intact — if anything, he’s learned to incorporate other styles as they came into fashion, be it throwback Sepultura-ish thrash (Dark Ages) or pseudo-death metal (Enslaved). This brings us to the current record, Savages, which is thrust into a world dominated by djent and deathcore, where Soulfly’s foundation is seen as hopelessly outdated.” Is this new metal or nü-metal? You have to read to find out because we aren’t giving hints!
