Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Thrash Metal
Label: Slaney Records 

Virginia based thrash metallers Possessor have been exploding heads with their ruthless brand evil metal since around 2009, but if you didn’t know any better (and the production was a little grainier), you’d swear you’ve stumbled upon a lost gem from the early 80′s! I remember when the “old school revival” thing became a trend and fizzled out (mostly) about two years ago. I could of sworn that that was going to be the end of it for a while. Luckily, Slaney Records and Possessor sought to teach me otherwise!

Possessor starts the festivities off in A City Built With Skulls with a distorted introduction that is, honestly, of little importance and is actually pretty boring. Suspense isn’t built at all, just annoyance. HOWEVER, once that intro ends, the fucking SLAUGHTER begins!!! A torrential flood of blood and beer bursts from the floodgates as this Virginian fivesome annihilates EVERYTHING in sight with Taste The Blade! From there, everything only gets better!

The guitars are PERFECT for the feel these guys were going for. Every riff is speedy, blackened and sleazy, right on down to the core! The same can be said for the, some could say, OVER aggressive drumming as well. Naw… we won’t say that! The drumming is spot-fucking-on and dirty as balls! The vocals on the other hand can get to be a little grating at times, but are an overall necessary component to Possessor and their filthiness!

I notice that I’ve been saying “dirty” and other variations of that a bit so far in this review. Well, dirty is what comes to mind when I’m listening to this album. Dirty, nasty, filthy, sleazy fucking metal! You all know what that means and most of you love it!  I know I do!

Overall: I don’t have a clever pun or any cheesy word play for you this time. Just a straight forward command: Check out City Built With Skulls! Shit fucking kills!!!

9/10

-  Typhon

Possessor On Facebook

Genre: Crossover
Label: Slaney Records

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of crossover. It’s even less of a secret that I’m all about the greatest U.K. band that you’ve never heard: Adrenicide. How awesome are they? Well, let’s just say that there has been a huge spike in A.A. enrollment since these hardcore thrashards signed with Slaney Records.

War Begs No Mercy is exactly what you think it should be; a head first dive into a trillion gallon tankard of the cheapest swill you can get your gubby little paws on… with sharks! Founders Neil and Nuno tear up the frontlines with their dual attack of punky vocals and thrashing riffs, tearing through instant classics like Zombie Nation (which I initially thought was about the NES or Naked Zombie Sean Connery version) and Two Minute Warning! Drummer Blake Macready (how often do The Thing jokes pop up with him around?) blazes through War Begs No Mercy and is and oh so welcome addition to the line-up (since I didn‘t get to sample his talents in Kill), as is bestial bassist Rod Holdstock.

Time for a little bit of a downer; the lack of variation kind of wears on you if you’re not ready for it. And for some reason I wasn’t, even though their other releases are pretty much of the same formula. Other than that, there isn’t much that you can’t enjoy. War Begs No Mercy, begs no mercy!

Overall: Classic crossover with all of the aggression and in-your-face interface you can’t handle! Easily the best of a dying genre.

9/10

Adrenicide On MySpace
Adrenicide Official

Genre: Thrash, Death Metal
Label: Slaney Records

Fucking awesome band name! Completely fucking rad album name! Totally fucking badass label! How can you go wrong? Honestly, you can’t! This album rips! Total Fucking Slaughter is everything you’d imagine it would be: an Earth shattering mixture of hell bent death metal and 100% saturated with booze thrash!

The vocalist sounds like he’s belching out the lyrics half of the time. But it actually works this time around. It comes off as an esthetic choice as apposed to a lack of talent (::COUGH::Waking::HACK::The::BURP::Cadavar::COUGH::). Pretty much everything else is standard death metal/thrash protocol. But it’s fucking rad! It’s a mood enhancer, I swear it! And everything is tuned waaaay the fuck down too. So if you like your thrashiness on the side of bowel emptying and your death metal sped up a bit, then Total Fucking Slaughter is just what the mortician ordered!

Overall: Gut The Priest, down a few beers, Blow The Goat and rev up your Motorcunt. This album KILLS!!!

10/10

Mutilated Messiah On MySpace

Genre: Thrash
Label: Slaney Records

Hmm… “Beware Of The Snake”. My college roommate put a sign on our door that read “Beware Of The Snake” …I didn’t much care for him.

Snake Eyes’ debut album of the same name on the other hand, I happen to dig on a hardened thrash scale! Speedy, lethal Polish thrash that only has one goal; to shred your face clean off your skull (maybe world domination too, but I‘m merely speculating on that point)! If fancy a little Kreator, Destruction or Sodom in your thrashin’ catalog, then odds are in favor of you’ll want Snake Eyes to be right along side of them.

The vocalist has a perfect blackened thrash rasp and the lyrics jump back and forth from English to Polish (alternating about every other track) without losing any momentum.  Surprisingly, the mixing is balanced in such a way that you can actually hear the bassist! And friends, this guy makes it seem reasonable as to why they usually drown it out… sometimes, the bass is just TOO THRASHING to be contained! This is one of those instances. The producer gambled and won!

Overall: Beware Of The Snake aims high and will score a direct hit with fans of Teutonic blackened and old schools of thrash fuckin’ metal! Bangovers, here we come!

I figured that this would be a good place for some sort of G. I. Joe reference. So here’s one of my favorite Snake Eyes quotes: “…”

8/10

Snake Eyes On MySpace
Also Posted On E-MetalSpace

Genre: Thrash, Hardcore
Label: Slaney Records

The Greek, thrash entities known commonly as Convicted, have been causing heads to bang and fists to pump since 1998. Their sounds attests to this since it’s full of a heavy grooves and gruff, hardcore vocals (much akin to that of Derek Green. Like eerily…). So, they’re thrash, but not that classic 80’s stuff that’s like a drug to most of us. More of a Gothenburgy-thrash/core mishmash.

I’m not going to mince words with Convicted sophomore album, it’s pretty mediocre. None of the tracks really standout and the album itself seems less energetic than a thrash album should be. There are a few fun parts, namely the gang vocals in Fuck Off And Die and the chorus in album opener Cop killer (and no, it‘s not a Body Count cover… *shudder*). Other than that, this album is pretty forgettable.

Overall: I don’t know. Maybe I can’t get past the fact that this album reminded me of shit era Sepultura… I believe that Convicted as a band have some thrash in their soul. It’ll just take a little bit more time to pull it to the surface.

5.5/10

Convicted On MySpace
Also Posted On E-MetalSpace