Thrash Metal

  • Serenity Dies – Hacksawcracy (2010)

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    Hailing from the Maldives, Serenity Dies is a Trash Metal band that takes its roots form the greats such as Slayer, Megadeath, some Metallica, and a little itty bit of Exodus. “Hacksawcracy” is the band’s latest EP release, and it’s ready to compete with the big stars right off the bench.

    Keeping the music fresh, we have the traditional Trash foundations with some more modern grooving riffs and clean vocal harmonies that might put down the purist of the genre, but we think they are very well crafted and mixed into the band’s sound. For almost 30 minutes this up and coming band makes a powerful statement with “Hacksawcracy”.

  • Virgin Snatch – Act of Grace (2008)

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    Today in our huge promo-to-review queue we find Virgin Snatch’s “Act of Grace”, the band’s fourth release since their formation on 2001. Playing a very interesting mixture of Trash Metal with Modern Metal elements, more specifically Groove elements, we find “Act of Grace” a very interesting release… musically. The album is very fresh, sounding more like melodic Metal releases in some parts, since there are plenty of well crafted passages that sound like anything, except Trash Metal.

    With a name like Virgin Snatch, we were about to immediately throw this to the queue of Grindcore/’shit we don’t really want to listen’ list, but we decided against it after doing some research on the band. You should not discard them because of this either, since this Polish band is worth a listen.

  • Fatal Embrace – The Empires of Inhumanity (2010)

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    Today we have yet another old-school Trash Metal band. Fatal Embrace has been around for over 17 years and for some reason has only managed to release 4 albums in their long career. Signed now to Metal Blade records, we image that they are trying to capitalize on the current Trash Metal revival.

    The influences presented on “The Empires of Inhumanity” are too many to count, but we can tell you that the band sounds like Kreator, Slayer, Dark Angel, and Sodom. Sounds impressive on paper right?, well… the band has it’s moments but they show no originality or evolution whatsoever. On “The Empires of Inhumanity” we get 11 tracks (plus 1 cover) of well executed old-school Trash that will surely get all the fans of the genre jumping on their seats, but gets old very quickly.

  • Vomitor - Devils Poison (2010)

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    While Hells Headbangers is known for releasing very retro (and good) sounding releases, with Vomitor’s “Devils Poison” they have dropped the ball immensely. This Aussie band had done a great job with “Bleeding the Priest”, a very worthy debut album that gained them well deserved comparisons with Sodom, Celtic Frost and the all mighty Hellhammer. But with “Devils Poison” they sound like they should be heading back to their garage and record a few more demos.

    “Devils Poison” is a very chaotic release that has pretty much nothing going for it, the album gets boring right after track number one. We are not complaining about the raw and primitive sound the band has (which is characteristic of the early Sodom, etc albums), but we complain about the lack of creativity and even musicianship behind this release.

  • Skyforger – Kurbads (2010)

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    After listening to Skyforger’s new album “Kurbads” the first thing that comes to mind is: WTF. The band started out Pagan/Folk Metal with Black Metal influences, and now it’s reduced to a semi-inspired mixture of Trash/Heavy Metal with some Folk influences. “Kurbads” is far far away from what we are expected from Skyforger.

    Hailing from Latvia, it’s been seven years since the all-folk “Zobena Dziesma” album, and all these years have been wasted since “Kurbads” is downright terrible in our opinion. There are some good moments here and there, but mostly it’s just re-hashed Trash riffs with horrible vocals. The folk sections are ok, but during the band’s absence there have been great Pagan/Folk Metal releases that completely obscure this release.

  • Great Awakening – Hit n Run (2009)

     

    Jumping on the Trash revival bandwagon we have Great Awakening from the USA. Having formed in Florida in 2006, the band does a great job in bringing the good-old days of Trash back. Great Awakening’s music is very decent for a Trash Metal release, but they do not offer any edge that would allow us to consider them a force to be reckoned with.

    Their 2009 demo titled “Hit n’ Run” showcase 3 very decent songs Trashy songs that have the old-school vibe, but are missing some soul and originality to them. While we don’t expect every band to re-invent the wheel, we do expect some level of originality when it comes to playing a genre that has been around for over 20 years.

  • Vektor – Black Future (2009)

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    With the logo calling for similarities from Voivod we were expecting a soulless clone of this band, but instead we found a very good Progressive Trash Metal American band that is set to make a name of their own. Hailing from Arizona, this quartet does a great job into mixing progressive elements with old-school Trash that will blow you away.

    While there are some Voivod influences, “Black Future” is an album that clearly stands out from all the ‘new’ Trash Metal releases these days. The riffing is the main driving force behind this release, but it’s perfectly crafted around complex song structures that are unlikely in many Trash releases.

  • Arma Gathas – Dead To This World (2010)

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    After all the countless Trash Metal releases we have reviewed in 2010, we finally get a break with a band that incorporates other elements to this genre, and makes it sound very different and fresh. Arma Gathas hails from Switzerland and their combination of Trash, Groove and some Hardcore elements makes them sound both powerful and fresh.

    If we had to guess where this band is from without doing research, we would have guess that they came from France, since Arma Gathas sounds like a Trashier version of Hacride, Gojira, etc. The riffing in “Dead To This World” is very Trash Metal oriented but with more aggressive vocals and different rhythms thrown into the mix.

  • Morbid Carnage – Night Assassins (2010)

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    Hailing from Hungary we get yet another band that is jumping on the Trash Metal revival bandwagon, but at least they are pretty solid at it. This band sounds a lot like Kreator did back in the 80’s and we are digging this release just because of this fact.

    The band does a great job at capturing all the brilliant elements that Trash had back in the day, and gives them the proper modern production values to make them sound very brutal and aggressive. “Night Assassins” is not the most original album we have heard in this ‘Trash Metal revival’ era, but it sure is one of the most old-school sounding ones.

  • Destinity – XI Reasons To See (2010)

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    The ever changing French band Destiny is back with a very complex and multi-faceted album that will surely be enjoyed by fans of different styles of Metal music. “XI Reasons To See” feature a wide variety of tracks that feature a healthy combination of Melodic Death Metal, Trash Metal and Modern Death Metal.

    Some people might argue that this release has too much stuff going on to be fully appreciated, but we believe that one you give this album a few listens you will start to appreciate all the layering that Destiny has done. With a strong Melodic DM and Trash foundation we greatly enjoy this release.

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