If you’ve had enough of middle-aged big-name thrash bands who’ve lost the fire in their bellies and you’re left yawning by fledgling retro thrashers who sound like they couldn’t punch their way out of a paper bag, listen up: We have a track for you from Suppressive Fire with a song title that isn’t an exaggeration: “Nuclear Dismemberment“.
This isn’t the first time we’ve paid attention to this band from Raleigh, North Carolina. Near the beginning of this year, in one of our new-music round-ups, we featured a song off their debut album Bedlam, which was released in mid-January. And in mid-January of next year, the band’s second full-length, Nature of War, will be upon us. That’s where you’ll find “Nuclear Dismemberment”.
Since the time of Bedlam, Suppressive Fire have expanded from a trio to a four-man band, with two new members (Josh Bleeks on drums and Will Saenz on bass) recording this new album along with vocalist/guitarist Aaron Schmidt and guitarist Joseph Bursey.
The album includes eight new tracks and “loosely explores the terrible nature of World War I, along with several other fun themes.” The nasty cover art was created by Matt Slime, depicting a scene based on an actual event during the winter combat between German and Russian soldiers in 1916 in which a super-pack of starving wolves raided the trenches, forcing the combatants to turn from fighting each other to fighting the predators.
And now about that song “Nuclear Dismemberment“: It has enough electrifying power to raise whole graveyards of corpses from the dead and enough destructive explosiveness to level city blocks. The music is massively jolting, with a rhythm section that’s brutally effective and savage, and the riffs — which are covered in a bristling layer of abrasive distortion — are highly addictive.
On top of all that, the song delivers darting, occasionally dissonant lead guitar work and a couple of head-twisting, flamethrowing solos, plus caustic, acid-bathed vocals. And in the final minute, the band hit a sledgehammering groove that will get your head moving like a piston, if it doesn’t tear it right off.
Nature of War was recorded by Greg Klaiber of Caveman Studios in Durham and was mixed and mastered by Joel Grind. It’s scheduled for release on January 13 by Lost Apparitions Records. To pre-order it, check these links:
https://suppressivefire.bandcamp.com
http://www.suppressivefire.net
http://www.lostapparitions.com
Track List:
1. Violent Enlightenment
2. Depraved
3. No Man’s Land
4. Dreaded Bastards
5. Earthripper
6. Nature of War
7. Vesicant
8. Nuclear Dismemberment