Bonded By Blood – Exiled To Earth
Genre: Thrash Thrash Thrashity Thrash
Label: Earache Records
Ok… I just listened to the Extinguish The Weak EP a dozen or so times, Feed The Beast about five more times than that in order to psych myself up to… Exiled To Earth! The upcoming (August 10th. Not too far away…) post-alien occupation concept album set six hundred years in the future!
With obvious influences from the likes of 80’s thrash titans like Testament and Annihilator, there’s sure to be a few nay-sayers out there who will continue their few years running “anti-young thrash bands” tirades (I know who you are and you know who you are)… but(t) fuck ‘em! Exiled To Earth (and Bonded By Blood altogether) is as real as it gets nowadays.
Frontman Aladdin has had some time to hone his vocal assault down to a fine point, focus it on some hapless shmucks and launch it like a poser seeking missile, causing instantaneous cranial collapse! His shouting seems a bit more structured than in Feed the Beast and it’s all for the better. Meanwhile dual axemen Alex and Juan rend and tear through riff raging mosh makers like title track Exiled To Earth, Prototype: Death Machine and Prison Planet! Drummer Carlos blasts, rolls slams his way through everything form toned down intros (Desolate Future) to flash-fests (Cross-Insemination) without *ahem* missing a beat.
Unfortunately, I’d like to give the same kind of glowing praise to bassist Jerry, but I couldn’t fucking hear him! I don’t know if it was due to poor mixing (which would suck since the rest of the mixing aspects seem top notch) or maybe it could have been my speakers. Who knows? It’s a damn shame since I dug his work in Taking Over…
Overall: It looks like in 600 A.B. (After the Bomb), the only things that survive are a handful of humans, cockroaches and head bangin’, neck rippin’ thrash! Bonded By Blood has done it again! Fuck the Crong!
9/10
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