Füneral Rain Press Cörps

Genres: Death Metal, Thrash
Label: Independent

This CD arrived in my mailbox rather unexpected, but I was somewhat excited to check it out. Mexican death metal is usually pretty good, and when mixed with thrash, it’s even better. Hellsing prove this theory, and have become my second favorite band from Mexico.
The overall sound is a very clean thrash, in the vein of newer Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, or Bullet For My Valentine, but don’t let that discourage you. I know some metalheads would cringe at those comparisons, but when faced with the excellent growls of Jose Luis your idea should change. These guys are the real deal, holding up a ‘true’ metal (whatever that means) flag for the world to unite under.
Opening track “The Rival” opens up with a simple, thrashy intro but quickly turns into a very fistpumping death metal track that strongly reminds me of Canadian thrashers Titans Eve and Trivium, with a bit of 3 Inches of Blood and Cannibal Corpse. Some really awesome solos are in this song, so get your air guitar ready.
The second track, the title track to the EP, is a short song, not even a full minute long. It’s a nice quiet instrumental that leads you into “The Dark Side of the Moon”, a NWOBHM/thrash riff infested slow piece. Iron Maiden meets Entombed? Something like that. Again, solos. These guys know how to do them right; little mini songs that help the main song out. Great stuff.
Bonus track “Razor” is a faster, more evil-sounding vocal track with a fucking killer solo section at 1:28 that doesn’t let up until 2:48, where it goes into the main riff. This thing gallops along like Maiden but just slays with it’s shredding thrashtastic guitar work. Definitely my favorite song on the EP.
The second bonus track, and last song, “The Final Hour” starts off HUGE, reminding me of thrash infected gothic metal. Don’t let that trick you though, as Jose comes in and throws down a vocal that turns this song into a totally melodic Swedeath homage to bands like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, and Soilwork. Second favorite track on the EP for sure.
If you’re into deaththrash, check out Hellsing MX. These guys are really good at what they are doing, and deserve at least a look at.
7.5 out of 10.

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Genre: Thrash, Metalcore
Label: Elephantine Records 

I’ve been waiting four years for this album to come my way! I reviewed 18 Wheels Of Justice’s Deceive Them All back in 2007 and have been drooling for their next album ever since (I think their superb cover of The Trooper helped grease those wheels). After several failed attempts to receive one through the mail, I opted for the MP3 format. And now, my four year wait is over! Here we go…

Immediately, Execution eclipses Deceive Them All in all conceivable arenas. The songwriting is sturdier. The fast riffing is even faster. The thrash is fucking thrashier! I can’t really add much to this review on a musical analysis level. If you heard their last album, just take everything that might of been a little loose and tighten it up until you’re afraid it’s gonna snap, then add a fresh coat of paint and attach CO2 canisters to it and you’ve got this album in a nutshell.

Vocalist and new kid on board, Adam Sloan has a much wider range of vocal styles than Steve Justice. Adam has the hardcore shouting deal down alright and even throws out a shrill shriek every once in a while. But occasionally his growling tends to waver and wobble and it’s a bit distracting. Other than that, I can’t complain about his performance and I welcome and accept him into the family.

I should also mention that Deceive Them All was mostly metalcore in musical direction, regardless of what you might of heard elsewhere. Execution is Deceive Them All’s polar opposite in terms of ratio. This time it’s 25% metalcore and 75% thrash which will hopefully expose these guys to a wider audience of Thrasholes!

Overall: A thrashy overhaul and a new vocalist make Execution a clear improvement over their last album. And while I wouldn’t recommend this album to everyone I know, I’d still recommend it to a shit-ton of them!

8/10

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Where: Edmonton Event Centre
When: November 4, 2011

When I found out that GWAR were coming back to Edmonton for the second time in (barely) less than a year I was stoked. Blood was going to flow once more. And this time around they were bringing Every Time I Die and Ghoul! ETID have been a band I’ve only heard bits and pieces of, and liked what I’ve heard. And I’ve only heard Ghoul through the other band of two of its members, Impaled. So it was exciting.
Ghoul came onto the stage to lots of people shouting for them, which is pretty rare. An opener getting cheered by name from the crowd? Must be an Edmonton show. The band themselves were really good, high energy punk/thrash hybrid full of pit-inducing gory lyrics. They even brought up a stage show, spraying blood onto the crowd with a decapitated chicken as well as Killbot and Goreboar’s battle. Fucking awesome, and I hope they make it back to Canada again.
Every Time I Die were great, full of the acrobatics that many of their members have been known for. The crowd really got into them, moshing like crazy for breakdowns and crowdsurfing all over the place. I honestly didn’t know these guys were that big. I’ve seen them in tons of magazines and the like, but never figured they have this strong of a following. The music was loud, fast, and punk as fuck, with tons of hardcore breakdowns. If you get the chance to see these guys, do it, you won’t regret it. Even if the music isn’t for you, the show should be good.
At the end of the night though, this whole show was about one band and only one band. GWAR. Their stage was unveiled, and Corey’s guitar was brought out, placed on a stand with a light on it, and the tech that brought it took a knee before it. I can’t explain how moving that in itself was. For those that don’t know, Corey Smoot played the part of Flattus Maximus, and he had passed away in the tour bus the morning before, and GWAR still decided to finish the tour, the way Corey would want. The crowd, of course, loved it. Cheers were heard all over the EEC.
The band then came out and we let them slay as per their usual. But it wasn’t usual. A very palpable sense of sadness, mixed with anger and anticipation was coming from Oderus, Balsac, Beefcake and Jizmac, and I think it brought them to a closer level to the fans, who were also feeling the same. The set was very much emotionally charged, with Oderus frequently asking Flattus why he went to Planet Home, leaving them all behind. There was even one moment where it truly looked like Beefcake was genuinely choking down tears.
The blood and sweat and goo were all present, and Edmonton was well soaked by the end of the night, turned out into the cold November air. Everyone I saw was elated, full of the GWAR experience, but there was still some melancholy at the end of the amazing night.
Thank you GWAR for sharing your grief with us, and thank you Ghoul and Every Time I Die for joining them. Rest in Peace Corey, and have fun Flattus Maximus on Planet Home. Oderus says you’ll be killing shit and fucking it. I hope so.

Photos from the show are available for your viewing pleasure at the FRPC Facebook page.

Genre: Thrash

Label: Heavy Artillery Records

It’s always fun to hear about a band that you picked up a demo from at one of their shows has been signed to one of your favorite labels. Even better is when they finally release that much anticipated debut EP. Better still? When their nine track full length album finally hits your ears! Best of fucking all?!  It ends up being the best goddamn thrash album you’ve heard all year!

If the album cover doesn’t give it away, Excruciator play on the darker side of thrash. (Less Tankard more Kreator, you know?) The kind of thrash that can boarder on death metal if one is only kind of listening to it in the background. So it’s no real surprise that Devouring is as fucking fast and fucking vicious as you would expect an album called Devouring by a band named Excruciator to be! Also note that eight of these nine tracks are original songs, the one exception being the immortal Nuclear Exmortus.

Lyrically, Devouring is exactly what we’ve come to expect from Excruciator: Booze, violence, war, glory holes, cheese graters and catheters! Instrumentally, Excruciator  plays tighter and more focus than ever before here. Every solo sounds like it wasn’t a first take “fuck it”. The vocals sound better than previous efforts as well. I mean, I dug the vocals in past releases too. It’s just that here, they sound like true, menacing thrash vocals!

Disciples Of Menace is easily the best new song on the album. It’s got everything! Rage filled lyrics, hot handed thrash riffs, classic drum beats and a wildly driving bass line! Not since the first time I heard Peace Sells have bass chops like that been stuck in my noggin.

And what’s this? Devouring closes with a cover of Onslaught’s Metal Forces?!?!? …no? Oh poo. Nice tease dickholes!

…still and awesome song though.

Overall: Devouring is a 100% thrash attack!!! And you know that Excruciator is only going to get better from here.

9.5/10

Excruciator On ReverbNation

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