A DOUBLE REVIEW: HAVOK AND WARBRINGER

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
May 042020
 


Havok

 

(In this post TheMadIsraeli combines reviews of the new albums by Havok (released on May 1st by Century Media) and Warbringer (released on April 24th by Napalm Records.)

Thrash metal is in a funny place to me.  Ever since the resurgence of it, a lot of bands have desperately clung to the nostalgia bait of writing music that sounds like an authentic representation of what you would’ve heard in the ’80s or early ’90s.  What’s really kind of joke-worthy about this trend is that what we ended up seeing was a bunch of guys trying to sell you nostalgia and engaging in probably extreme metal’s most overt tailspin into cynical capitalist consumerism.  Most of the resurgence of thrash in the modern age has thus been pretty soulless and pretty meme-worthy.

As a consequence, the thrash metal that’s good nowadays shrugs off that nostalgia bait and moves forward.  The best of it embraces the evolution of the style up to its recession in 1992 or so and has then seen some of the best material written in the whole sub-genre in the 2010‘s.

So, we’re doing some shorter-length reviews today of two thrash metal records that embody this ideal.  Thrash metal that retains the foundation but has adapted to the times. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2017’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 4): VALLENFYRE, WARBRINGER, VITRIOL

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2017  No Responses »
Jan 152018
 

 

Welcome to the 4th installment of my evolving list of infectious songs from last year. I’m continuing to have fun re-listening to tracks from 2017 on my massive list of candidates, and also having fun deciding which picks to group together.

Today, for example, I decided to group these three tracks together not only because I find the songs to be highly infectious but also because listening to them back-to-back is a very effective way of blowing my brain to smithereens. And who doesn’t enjoy that? In addition, all three of these tracks debuted with videos that are quite entertaining to watch.

VALLENFYRE

Well, we’ve been worshipfully prostrating ourselves to Vallenfyre for years at NCS, from the very beginning straight through to the band’s latest album, Fear Those Who Fear Him, which might be the end (see this interview). And so, it should come as no surprise that I’ve picked another Vallenfyre song for another Most Infectious Song list. Continue reading »

WARBRINGER: “WOE TO THE VANQUISHED”

 Album Reviews  2 Responses »
Mar 162017
 

 

(The MadIsraeli reviews the new album by Warbringer, which will be released on March 31 by Napalm Records.)

Warbringer are a band who up to now never quite hooked me. They’re no doubt talented, and they are definitely in the upper echelon of the old school thrash revival. I should’ve liked these guys more. They were essentially more aggressive Twisted Into Form Forbidden, but I always felt they played it too safe, enough so that it kept me from being enthralled by their music. Having said that, I’ve always been willing to give the newest Warbringer album a listen when one comes out, because I WANT to like these guys more than I have.

The main thing that really makes these re-thrash bands any good is when they know how to blend the old school with modernity, and in the past Warbringer were too busy living in the past and imitating it rather than emboldening it with a new-school spirit. That is, until Woe To The Vanquished. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: WARBRINGER, BLASPHEMER, GRAVE PLAGUE, DISCHORDIA, AMTHYST, OLD SCRATCH, AREA, SUPREMATIVE

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  2 Responses »
Jan 232017
 

 

This will be one of those Mondays when I’m afraid we’ll be doing our best to drown you in music, beginning with this large collection of new discoveries (which includes one item from Austin Weber along with my own picks).

I thought about titling this post “Galloping Madness!” Everything in here flies, but in particular there’s a heavy thrash influence in a lot of the music at the start and the finish, with some brain scramblers sandwiched in the middle. But as you’ll discover, the thrash influence manifests itself in very different ways.

WARBRINGER

The first item is a video for “Silhouettes”, from the new album Woe to the Vanquished by California’s Warbringer. This is their fifth full-length, and it’s slated for a March 31 release through Napalm Records.

“Silhouettes” premiered at DECIBEL last week, where vocalist John Kevill gave this explanation about the song: Continue reading »

COVERING MOTÖRHEAD

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  19 Responses »
Dec 302015
 

Integrity-Orgasmatron cover

 

Like a lot of people, I spent most of my music-listening time yesterday with Motörhead. For the hell of it, I also spent time listening to metal bands covering Motörhead songs. A lot of bands have done that. Out of the many covers I listened to,  damned few of them are quite as good as the originals, and at least to my ears, none of them is better.

However, having invested the time hunting for covers that breathed some kind of different life into the classic originals, I decided to put them all here — the good ones and the so-so ones — by these bands: Satyricon, Sepultura, Ringworm (with guest vocals by Barney Greenway), Korpiklaani, Sodom, Machetazo, Avulsed, Overkill, Metallica, Horna, Kvelertak, Warbringer, and Krisiun.

But before I get to those, I’m starting with one that’s definitely a success. It’s a cover  of “Orgasmatron” that Integrity released just yesterday on Bandcamp (here). Continue reading »

MORE 2011 SICKNESS (PART 6)

 Forthcoming Albums  2 Responses »
Jun 022011
 


Damn, I’m finally able to go outside without shivering and being beaten about the head and shoulders with high winds and rain blowing sideways. That must mean it’s June in Seattle!  And so it is. A largely dismal May is behind us, the Seattle Mariners are astonishingly only a game and a half out of first place in their division (that’s baseball for you outlanders), and the summer lies ahead.

What else lies ahead? A bunch of new metal, of course. And because it’s the beginning of a new month, we’re bringing you another installment of METAL IN THE FORGE, in which we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — this isn’t a cumulative list. If we found out about a new album during April or preceding months, we wrote about them in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier. This month’s list begins right after the jump. Look for your favorite bands, or get intrigued about some new ones. Continue reading »