Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Blackened Thrash
Label: Indie Recordings
Format: Digital Stream (Earsplit PR)

One band that I’ve known about forever but have never checked out is Aura Noir, and I’m now kicking myself in the ass for not checking them sooner. It’s no wonder why they come up a lot when it comes to talks about black metal meeting thrash. These guys make a perfect example of the genre.
Parts of this remind me of a version of Metallica with actual balls. Parts remind me of Venom worship. And parts even remind me of Darkthrone’s The Cult Is Alive album. Granted, it’s not like Aura Noir are legitimate friends with Darkthrone or anything.
There isn’t really much to say. Fast, faster, and fastest riffs fill this album from front to back, and a disgusting necrotic stench emanates from every vocal. Solos are ear piercing and finger breaking, drums are deep with some snare click and fast, and the bass compliments rather than takes any form of front seat. This is fucking awesome!
If you want your thrash punked up with a nice coat of blackened grave dirt, this album is for you.
8 out of 10.

Out To Die Tracklisting:
1. Trenches
2. Fed to the Flames
3. Abbadon
4. The Grin from the Gallows
5. Withheld
6. Priest’s Hellish Fiend
7. Deathwish
8. Out To Die

Out To Die Personnel:
Aggressor – Vocals/Guitar
Apollyon – Vocals/Bass/Drums
Blasphemer – Guitar

Aura Noir Official.
Aura Noir on Facebook.

Genre: Thrash, Punk, Blackened Thrash

Label: Relapse Records

Yes! I’ve been waiting for three years to get my hands on some new Toxic Holocaust material! Conjure And Command couldn’t of come at a better time too. It seems that every act in Portland, Oregon (NOTE: Toxic Holocaust originated in Florida, hence the, “in Portland” and not, “from Portland”) and their cousins are releasing material about the same time. And so far, it’s all unbelievably awesome! Let’s cross our fingers and and see where Mr. Grind & Co. are taking us this time around…

Joel Grind ditched being a solo thrash master before recording Toxic Holocaust’s successful 2008 album, An Overdose Of Death. Continuing to find strength in numbers, Toxic Holocaust is once again a trio of semi-blackened thrash and punk driven madness! Bassist Philthy Gnaast plays his fours stringer like anyone else who feels under-appreciated: loud and aggressive so that somebody will hear you and go, “Dude, you fucking kick ass!” Well, Phil… Dude, you fucking kick ass! (Appreciation!) Meanwhile, drummer Nikki Rage trots and bangs his way through Conjure And Command at a pace that’s more befitting someone who’s more accustomed to playing sludgecore… oh wait. He’s in Kingdom Of Sorrow? Now I get it. Personally, I think he sounds much better in Kingdom Of Sorrow. In Toxic Holocaust, he just kinda lags behind and drags the whole album down a bit.

Joel’s voice has gone through a bit of a change since the last album. His blackened rasp has been scaled back for some songs to the point of almost being a traditional thrash/punk shout… sort of. But what can be said for sure, would have to be Joel’s continuation of cranking out some insane thrash riffs that you may or may not of heard before. Some of them sound like inverted or rearranged versions of Witchmaster and Artillery songs. Either way, they’re original enough for me to bang my fucking skull to!

And maybe it’s because of that, Conjure And Command has a sense of redundancy that one doesn’t exactly want in there new release from a fresh thrash act. But then again, maybe that’s just me…

Overall: Conjure And Command is probably Toxic Holocaust’s weakest album to date… and it’s still worthy of your time. If you’re a fan of Toxic Holocaust, then you’ll undoubtibly dig this one. If not, start off with Evil Never Dies and listen chronologically until you get to this one.

7/10

Toxic Holocaust On ReverbNation

Toxic Holocaust On Facebook

Genre: Blackened Thrash
Label: Hell’s Headbangers

This is some raw and dirty sounding thrash right here. Victimizer sure aren’t fucking around, and this really is a powerful and mean album, for people who love “bonebreaking armageddon metal for real men.” I must warn everyone who thinks about getting this album, you might find your testosterone levels increase by listening to it. Mine did, and my need to snap my neck in a mosh pit rose as a result.
This is thrash the way thrash should thrash. No fancy production, no fancy studio tricks, no autotune. Just straight up metal perfect to kick some ass to.
8 out of 10.

Victimizer on MySpace.

Genre: Blackened Thrash
Label: Reinig Records

Hey kids! Do you dig Coroner, Venom, Holocaust references and things that go THRASH in the night? …No way! Me too!

Not satisfied with merely hitting the nail on the goddamned head with Out Of The Bunker when it comes to conventional, old school thrash, scorching black metal riffs and evil, evilness, Bunker 66 felt it necessary to strike it so hard that it was driven back in time and managed to lodge itself into the cedar resting wrist of Christ! *BAM!!!* This Italian born blackened thrash monster is a raging trio of ear shredding solos, machine gun drumming, behemoth bass lines and gravely, soul trapping vocals (which feature the occasional Tom G. Warrior “Oh!”).

I do have one gripe though and as usual, it’s nothing all that important to anyone who isn’t me: The art that adorns the actual CD is of what appears to be a water drenched, World War I era zombie. That horrifying image conjures up memories of a horrible experience I once had while watching a movie called Zombie Lake… The horrible experience that I refer to was the viewing of Zombie Lake! That movie was fucking horrible! Green skinned, German WWI zombies that wander about, killing skinny dipping teens with some of the worst and downright laziest gore effects I’ve ever seen! …but I digress. Aside from that absurdly long rant that had little to nothing to do with Out Of The Bunker, I honestly can’t do this album any justice with my limited understanding of perfection… so I guess you’ll just have to go and check this one out for yourselves.

Overall: Bunker 66’s Out Of The Bunker is the embodiment of all the things that makes metal great! It’s been a while since something this purely fucking rad has passed through my mailbox… hopefully, the next time will be sooner then when Bunker 66 sends me their full length release… *HINTHINT*

10/10

Bunker 66 on MySpace.

Originally Post On E-MetalSpace