Adrenacide-War begs no mercy

Slaney
2010

Our metal history tells us that crossover was a mixture of metal and punk. Primarily thrash and hardcore coming together. This phase hit it's peak around 85-88 and started out soon after. Like all styles from the 80's someone somewhere liked it enough to try and re-create it. The UK Adrenacide. have been around since 2003 and have to date knocked out six full length releases, an EP, a demo and a couple of songs on some compilations. They very much love 80's crossover and thrash and attempt to re-create it. Now I have heard some of this band's releases before and have to right away say that "War begs no mercy" is a huge improvement over what I have heard from these guys in the past. The albums I have heard before were likable to an extent, but rough and one-dimensional on numerous tracks. The production this time around is far superior although there is a song or two where the vocals could have come up slightly in the mix. The main aspect is the music. There are far more tempo changes and just a greater feeling of confidence all through most of the material. They copy their idols as they sound like a mix of DRI, Anthrax and others. The lyrcis are not very deep as they normally focus on beer, violence and thrashing around. However, there is a definite feeling that they are finally coming into their own to an extent as well as far as the music goes. Whether this change is due to practice, experience or whatever I don't know. I do know that Adrenacide have gone from being whose albums are worth hearing once to a band who I want heard repeatedly. Hats off to a fine effort.

Adrenicide-Natural Born Thrashers

2008
Thrashard

I am sure that at one time or another that almost everyone thinks about what it would be like to have a time machine. If there was such a device then some people would love to visit the past and others would be content to stay there. Adrenacide might fall into that second group because they obviously hold some bands from about 1985-1989 up on a pedestal. Adrenacide wear their influences on their sleeves and actually they even try to look like they popped right out 1987. The main influence I hear is DRI around the time of "Four of a kind" and "Thrashzone". I also hear some Anthrax and Nuclear Assault in there as well. The lyrics include songs about drinking, drugs, violence and other topics that have been many times over. The positives here would be that they bring in some hardcore touches and that sets them apart from many retro-thrash bands. I also enjoyed the slightly under produced sound which I think gave their music more of an underground feel. The downside is there isn't much here to recommend to fans who heard this type of music twenty years ago. It took me less than 30 seconds into almost every song on this CD to know exactly what they were going to do during the whole song. They rarely varied from that format and instead just plunked along like they had something to give. Unfortunately the style they are playing wasn't even that spectacular when it was in it's "prime". It's not that heavy, it's not that fast and the lyrics certainly don't help elevate the album either. I am a long time thrash fan, but Adrenacide just remind me of a band who know the basic skills and that's about it. It's find to love a style from the past, but when you don't add any of your own ideas then it's just like you are spinning your wheels.