HEAD WRECKAGE (Part 2): ALTARS OF DESTRUCTION

This started as one long post collecting new stuff from three bands that I saw and heard yesterday, the common theme being what they will do to your head. I decided to break it up into three parts. Part 1 started in Germany, with Beyond. In this part, we’re jumping over to Finland.

ALTARS OF DESTRUCTION

AoD was founded in 1986 by the brothers Kimmo (guitar) and Pasi Osmo (bass) and Jukka Sandberg (drums). From what I’ve read, they were one of the earliest and most influential thrash bands in Finland, though they broke up after releasing a debut EP in 1989. They re-formed in 2007 and finally released a debut album in 2010 named Gallery of Pain. There’s a lot more detail about the band’s history in a post I wrote back in January 2012.

What made me think of them again was their release yesterday of an official video for one of the songs from Gallery, “Suicide…Are You Fucking Insane?” The video sets the album track to a montage of film from a live show, but the real star of the show is the song itself. It’s a goddamn rampage of raw, radioactive, old-school thrash with a breakdown that hits like a battle tank, and of course you gotta love it when the vocalist blasts out the song’s title. I’d like to carry around an audio clip of “ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!?”. I hear shit on a daily basis when blasting it in someone’s face would be the perfect response.

Might work on a suicide prevention hotline, too.

The album can be ordered on CD here, and it’s also available digitally on Amazon mp3. AoD’s Facebook page is at this location.