Despite their name, Chicago’s newly formed Ready for Death offer more of a hardcore and thrash style in their debut offering. With 10 tracks and a run time of a little over 20 minutes, their self-titled debut on Translation Loss offers plenty of furious tales about chaos and destruction in a compact package.
It’s been over 25 years since Canadian thrashers Razor’s last album. Since then the band has reformed and played a string of shows here and there. In recent years Relapse Records reissued some of the band’s earlier material, Violent Restitution, Shotgun Justice and Open Hospitality. A new generation seemed to discover or rediscover Razor and they were hungry for new material. This was just the push those old thrashers needed.
The artwork that emblazons Municipal Waste’s Electrified Brain (Nuclear Blast) sets the scene as strongly as anything else could have: a Flying-V guitar violently piercing the left cheek of a skeletal head that’s also being shocked. That’s precisely what the nearly thirty-four-minute attack feels like. It’s a pummeling marathon of fun-loving ire, of bodacious violence. Continue reading
There is plenty of heat coming out of Atlanta, Georgia and we aren’t just talking about their humid weather. Sadistic Ritual includes many prominent members of noteworthy Atlanta-based bands (such as Paladin and Vimir). Their 2019 debut, Visions of Death, was described by Decibel as, ”a fearsome thrash ripper”. Back with more blackened thrash tunes and a psychedelic atmosphere along with some slick ass production, the band is poised to reach a broader audience with The Enigma, Boundless, their sophomore album and their first to be released on their new label, Prosthetic Records.
It’s really good to visit The Chance for a show after two years. It’s a long Metro-North Railroad train ride from the city but it’s always worth it once you’re there.
Bay Area thrashers Vio-Lence might have only been around for eight years but what a magnificent near-decade it was. From their classic hyper-aggressive debut Eternal Nightmare (MCA Records) to the controversial lyrics of ‘Torture Tactics’ and a deliciously questionable vegetable soup and vinegar “vomit bag” plastic record sleeve, the band also launched the career of a certain Robb Flynn who went on to form 1990s game-changers Machine Head, eventually to be followed by guitarist Phil Demmel. With three studio albums under their belts, the band went their separate ways in 1993, only becoming a full-time going concern again in 2019.
With a gap of eight years since their last studio album and boasting a new, reshuffled line-up, UK thrashers Evile are back with an absolute vengeance on their fifth full-length release. And as its title suggests, listening to Hell Unleashed (Napalm Records) is much like letting an angry, unfed Rottweiler loose in a roomful of overweight and particularly slow-moving children.
Not exactly renowned for being a hotbed of thrash metal, Australia has nevertheless served up some quality bands over the years. Sadistik Exekution, Addictive, and Deströyer 666 all enjoyed relative success along with bigger names such as Hobbs’ Angel of Death, and of course, Sydney’s Mortal Sin, but in more recent years it’s been left to Melbourne act Harlott to fly the Aussie flag of hate.
A latecomer to the ’80s thrash scene, Californian act Evildead still managed to turn out two fine examples of speed metal riffery before disbanding, another victim of the burgeoning grunge movement. Aside from a single released in 2011, a first reunion proved fruitless, but this time the band includes most of the personnel from their 1989 debut, Annihilation of Civilization (SPV/Steamhammer), with bassist Karlos Medina (who played on the follow-up) completing the new and improved line-up.
Relative newcomers to the scene, Detroit’s Plague Years follow up their independently released 2018 debut EP with their first full-length offering, Circle of Darkness (eOne Music). Continue reading