Review by Josh Felty
Rating: Give it a Spin!
I have one word for this collection of headbanging mass hysteria: brutal. Never has metal thundered so loud or rang so true as "Bad Blood", as it's clearly a not-so-gentle reminder that the legacy of Pantera and Slayer live on despite lulls and deaths on those fronts. And this is an indie outfit, no less, maybe the best arena for such a sound to explode from within.
The great aspect of really good thrash metal, the kind that kicks you down and follows through while you're roiling in your own pain on the ground, is that it's part attack on the nervous system, part technical extravaganza. Double-bass, again, rules the class here and does so with flying colors. Mind-blowing guitar riffs and wailing solos reminiscent of a ride through an interstellar vortex of ether and booze takes you back to metal's heyday, while bruising the audience head to toe with forehead-thumping rage.
I've said before how I really appreciate bands who balance the whole screaming vocalization with actual harmony, but I was honestly pleasantly surprised by this outing. There's some great skill in the gutteral, numbing scream. Far and away from actual singing, but still an elusive and seemingly destructive vocal style, I was actually reminded of the likes of Anselmo through tracks like "The Burning Truth" and "Bad Blood". I don't forsee this being something you'd put on during a relaxing evening, but who knows. Everybody has different taste.
However, I could easily see some of these songs as being mood music for some nice chainsaw mutilation shots in a horror or torture-porn movie of some sort.