Various artists-Speed Kills...again

Heavy Artillery
2007

I remember some good speed metal compilations back in the 1980's. A number of the Metal Massacre albums from Metal Blade featured some great thrash acts. I also remember loving an album from New Renaissance records called Speed Metal Hell which exposed me to Executioner, At War and other underground acts. Well, apparently speed metal compilations still exist as evidenced by "Speed Kills again". This album features six bands each doing two tracks a piece of 80's inspired thrash. This isn't metalcore or nu-metal, but rather it’s some bare bones thrash. LA's Merciless Death are up first and their music is of the Slayer, Dark Angel style. The music is good, but unfortunately the vocals are downright poor. It sounds like the singer is just reading off a piece of paper and he has no range, power or fire. Las Vegas band Avenger of death come on next and you hear the talent level elevate. Also in the Slayer, Dark Angel style with maybe hints of Sodom and Destruction. However they have just an immense sound and truly aggressive vocals. Sweden's Enforcer might be the most different band on this compilation. They opt for an earlier almost pre-thrash style with their first track sounding like Exciter while the second track is very much like Raven. They are very tight and I loved that they embraced this style. Next up is Toxic Holocaust from Boston. This band opt for a more early death metal approach with Possessed being the main band although there are some touches of Bathory and early Slayer. Italy’s Hatred is next with two tracks that suffer from horrid production. It sounds like they are playing in a tunnel and the vocalist is singing into a coffee can. I can’t really site any influences because it just sounds rather muddled and generic. Last is Warbringer and they may be my favorite here. The main influence I hear musically is Artillery with some Whiplash and early Slayer here and there. They have a sharp yet heavy style with a good grasp on how to keep things going and control the flow of the music. So we have six bands on the album with four very good, one decent and one that is below average. So overall it’s a solid compilation plus it goes for about $5.99 on CD so you can’t beat that.