Warsenal-DEMO

Warsenal are a very little down speed/thrash outfit hailing from Canada. This just sets the starting line for these young speed/thrashers, although I have a feeling their status will increase quickly within just a few years. This demo contains three songs, and the songs bring a small variety of fun elements to the table and Warsenal puts up a really decent effort from head to toe. The music is ridicolously catchy, and certain attributes such as classic speed/thrash, early Kreator or ''Kill 'em All'' era Metallica spawn viciously from every single riff.

Okay, obviously in such a concise piece of music, you would naturally have pretty simple influences and base structures, and that's how this demo plays. Sure, this is stuff that would have been praised more for its originality and catchiness in the early 80's, but good thrash is in such a bad condition that sometimes listening to a thrash like this makes me feel like I'm listening to my mandatory early thrash records. The riffs are damn simple, but they'll get you headbanging within moments. Occasional group shouts add some spice and freshness to the music, giving vigorous accents to emphasize the already catchy chorusses. The huge ''Kill 'em All'' influenced riffs are absoluetely vicious and crunchy even though the music in general isn't what you would call ''brutal''. The energy is there and its supported by the Millie Petrozza-esque vocals and concise drumming. The demo is an excellent textbook example of catchy, vivacious 80's speed/thrash nothing more, nothing less.

This extremely short demo offers little but offers it in the best way possible. Nothing technical here as the riffs are all perfectly comphrehensible yet the simplicity only boasts the quality of the demo. There are certain influences besides the ones that I have listed although they're vaguely unnoticeable. In conclusion, Warsenal have tapped on my memory and now I have a sudden urge to listen to my old school speed/thrash classics, early Razor in particular since they're fellow countrymen. If these guys release an album soon, be damn sure to get it if you're into recent acts like Withctrap, Midnight or Deathhammer, because it could even compete with those.

Highlight:
Hit n' Run

Rating: 83%

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Heretique-Ore Veritatis

Hailing from Poland, a country that ought to be known better for its waves of monstrous OSDM bands, Heretique produce some fairly fresh blackened death/thrash. ''Ore Veritatis'' is a hybrid of death, thrash and black metal, churning all three of them for a perfectly balanced mixture. Horrid, who had come up with one of the better examples of the this sub-genre, sound genuinely better than Heretique. Even though Heretique doesen't manage to be as sordid or filthy as Horrid, they still create an album worth listenening if you entirely devote yourself to the heaviness and thrashiness of the sub-genre.

I don't know I can still bare the same type of riffage played over and over, battering against my ear drums monotonously. I must really love my metal. Though I must also not that ''Ore Veritatis'' is far from complete repetetiveness. If the truth be told, ''Ore Veritatis'' has absolutely sordid and hefty moments of pure battering thrash madness and stomping death/thrash brilliance. The main thing that I love about this album is that it randomly swiches between all three sub-genres that it uses in the mixture, so the riffs range from crushing and spiky death/thrash chokes that pierce and shatter and epic black metal tremolo descendage, enabling the listener to actually enjoy the widespread riffage because the spectrum of variations is so wide and well-decorated with melodic solos. The modern sound is undeniable, but when the riffs are quality and there is a venemous atmosphere shadowing the riffs, one could hardly care. The atmosphere reaches its climax when clean guitar tones swagger around the hefty riffage and spacious tremolo bursts rage uncontrolled, frenzied by the deafening vocal delivery.

There is really nothing else that could be said about ''Ore Veritatis''. It's crushing, techy, epic and atmosphreic at times, so shortly, it combines everything good about black, death and thrash, sipmlifies it, and then puts it all into one package. Every track is simple, but crushing in its own way, so overall ''Ore Veritatis'' is a bloody decent album.

Highlights:
Rain Of Fire
Lashing And Contempt
Tribe

Rating: 86%

Dead To This World-Sacrifice EP

The relentless maelstrom of black/thrash bands continue, this time leaving me with this gem from Norway. It seems Norway has started getting their thrash up, with bands like Deathhammer and Nekromatheon releasing ultimately powerful records and leaving a strong mark. Dead To This World combine the ancient sound of their fellow countrymen with plain. nonetheless vicious thrash. With thye songs haing such a strong base, it is impossible fro me to dislike the upcoming blackened thrash assault, spewing forth a healthy amount of black metal alongside old school thrash metal whicch is not the most distintive, but certainly devastating.

While stand out tracks such as ''Satan's Storm'' give the Ep a brilliant headstart, other tracks still remain powerful and have a sustainable amount of energy to both give the genereal feel of the album and to entertain the listener. The great thing about the riffs is that they are soaked in black metal so they are all equally epic or thrashy. The Ep also has a ton of atmosphere which is highly prevalent also. So all in all the riffs are generic with the similar tremolo picking patterns repeated perpetually but thanks to the crushing thrash influence, they are saved and evolve into something which will most definetely want you to band your head to. The album scarcely borders on death metal, and that sound is accustomed the most in the vocal delivery. The vocalist plays a harsh game, and sounds totally throaty. He lacks the typical extremely high-pitched and muffled sound of classic black metal vocalists but that was probably one thing that he wasn't planning to do. The vocal style has formulated a great brand, combining standard, pissed off thrash vocals with exceedingly guttural and throaty screams that rage monstrously over the concise riffage. So by sounding pretty incomplex, Dead To This World have managed to formulate their own type of blackened thrash that's most compherensible, straightforward and furious thus relentlessly bashes the listeners ears.

To label this as the most original Ep/Album would be totally wrong, but as far as the dynamics that are created go, ''Sacrifice'' blows away. All songs are straightforward and pervasive within their own walls. This isn't the most groundbraking black/thrash of the year, but with improvements, it could progress into a much more stand out album. But the main idea here is the sordid assault of blackened thrash that bursts in an absolute frenzy thus aided with a ton of ambience and aspect. So ultimately, ''Sacrifice'' is humble to both of its ancient predecessors and is a well-rounded experience for newcomers of this sub-genre, which enables the nerve cells to keep heads banging, even though the music isn't too flexible or acrobatic.

Highlights:
Satan's Storm
Altar Of Mahakali

Rating: 85,5%