“Short Sharp Shock (SSS) have been around peddling their brand of old school 80s era crossover thrash since the release of their self titled EP and similarly titled full length back in 2006. Their latest hilariously titled foray wasn’t even a blip on my radar, but with a title like Limp.Gasp.Collapse, how could I resist checking it out?” 80s crossover is a grave you best open very cautiously.
“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.
“As most dedicated metalheads are aware, a hell of a lot of great heavy music has emerged from Finland over the years. However, I can’t recall too many notable Finnish thrash bands, which was a strong factor in putting my hand up to review the sophomore album from Ruinside. Diving in blindly with a review assignment is generally not how I operate, but needless to say I was intrigued by the prospect of a raging Finnish thrash album in a scarce year for the classic genre.” Diving in blind is risky work, especially with unknown thrash involved.
“Rigor Mortis is about as cult a name as there is in the annals of thrash. Unable to capitalize on the genre’s first wave in the mid 80s, the band’s 88′ debut was a wild, almost cartoonish dose of speed with death undertones that arrived just in time for the entire thrash genre to go over the proverbial cliff due to oversaturation.” This may be the surprise of the year right here.
“I was worried about this album. Revocation have had it too good for too long, releasing large quantities of absurdly excellent music with extreme consistency over a timespan that most other artists would take to write just one album. They’ve been cranking out yearly releases since their magnum opus Chaos of Forms in 2011. Yearly releases. For four years. The honeymoon has to end sometime, right?” Or does it?
“We haven’t reviewed much thrash this year, mostly because there hasn’t been a bumper crop to write about. That’s why the prospect of a new Exodus opus with Steve “Zetro” Souza returning to the fold had many a thrashard foaming at the mouth in anticipation. While the three recent albums with Rob Dukes were respectable enough, they lacked the pure, raw aggression the band had in its infancy when they and Slayer were the “scary, poser killing” crews.” Ready for some friendly, violent fun? Hope you’re ready for a whole lot of it!
“After consuming my fill of thick gourmet stew from doom heavyweights YOB and Pallbearer over the past month, it’s refreshing to get back to some no-frills meat and potatoes metal, courtesy of unsigned Californian thrashers Madrost. Firstly, the fact the band is unsigned is a little baffling, especially when considering the subpar tripe that winds up on labels these days. Not that Madrost are a particularly game changing or innovative band ready to set the metal underground ablaze, but they certainly have the chops and enough of their own identity to warrant a record deal.” It has been said we only review thrash here at AMG (or was it death)? Either way, here’s some fucking thrash!
“I’m a crabby old thrash metal fanatic. No bones about it. I’ve never really been into the new wave of thrash metal like As I Lay Dying and Suicide Silence, or the retro thrash metal bands like Municipal Waste and Bonded By Blood, who prance about in their tight jeans and high top sneakers, probably because I was there in the trenches during the first wave (though I never got into the skinny jeans). When Sweden’s The Haunted first rose from the ashes of At The Gates with their self-tiled debut in ’98, I wasn’t all that big of a fan. Compared to the originators of the genre and the legacy of At The Gates, The Haunted, frankly, was a letdown.” We’ve said some mighty unflattering things about The Haunted over the years, but we might have to stop the abuse…for now.
“Pulverised Records sure know how to sell an album! Crucifyre’s promo pack is stacked up the wazoo with perfectly sharpened, shiny meat hooks that’ll slide with ease into that soft fleshy bit just under your chin. And just think, while you’re hanging around at attention, Crucifyre will assault you mercilessly with their second full length release, Black Magic Fire. Titbits like album art from computer-game graphic designer Stefan Hansson, that the band is made up of members from Morbid, Crematory and Repugnant and that Hank Shermann (Mercyful Fate, ex-Volbeat) contributed on “One And One Is One” all give that prickly feeling that you’re on the verge of something great.” Still using the “y” instead of the “i”, eh? What’s the point ov that?
“Following a stint on highly respected underground metal label Iron Bonehead productions for the release of their Sulphur Blessing demo, Mexican/Turkish duo Sacrocurse have fittingly landed on the Hells Headbangers roster for their debut full length, entitled Unholier Master. Band members LZ (drums) and Zolrak Montes (guitars, vocals), the latter a member of long running Texan act Nodens, craft a suitably primal slab of bestial blackened death, wielding their respective instruments like crude and primitive weapons of war as they hack and hammer through ten violent cuts in an appropriately concise 32-minute running time.” Metal Rule #346: You aren’t extreme unless you have “sacro” in your band name. New probationary scribe L. Saunders reports on how the proper prefix helped these Mexican metallers in their quest for brutal conquest.
