Outbreak of metal volume 2

Slaney
2009


Following hot on the heels of volume one comes another split disc from Slaney records. I enjoyed the first volume a lot was very excited about this one. Just the concept of getting the equivalent of EPs from two different bands makes it feel like you are getting a lot on one disc. Of course the music actually has to be good for this to mean anything. Fortunately that is the case on this disc. This time around we get half a dozen songs each from two bands playing old school thrash. First up is a Poland's Destroyer who are fairly new to the scene since they just formed in 2007. It took all of a few seconds into the opener "Rip your brain" for me to know that these guys are strongly influenced by the Bay area sound that was so popular twenty plus years ago. Primarily "Kill em all" era Metallica, early Exodus and early Testament. The lyrics are as cliche as possible, but they make up for it with an intense and tight presentation. They could use some more variation in the music at times, but for the most part they capture what makes thrash likable. Currently they are working on their debut album and I am definitely looking forward to it. The second half of the disc is done by Norway's Violated. This band has some black and death metal background as members were in those style of bands before deciding to form a thrash band. While Destroyer played Bay area thrash Violater focus more on the Slayer/Dark Angel variety primarily around the years of 85-86. The big difference is they are definitely more aggressive and actually louder than the bands that influenced their sound. I certainly appreciate how heavy it is and the fact that they bring some of the traits from their more more extreme metal background and add it to the thrash approach. The results are that it sounds a little more current than many of the bands who merely re-hash old thrash albums. The vocals on Violated's tracks are fairly limited and that could use some work. Both bands certainly showed enough here to make this another fine effort. I will keep my eyes out for future efforts from both of these bands and I hope that Slaney records keeps this series going because I have certain;y enjoyed the first two volumes.