Field Guide to Retro-Thrash Metal Bands

I am a fan of thrash metal. I believe I have made that fairly clear throughout this blog. Retro Thrash has emerged in recent years, and though it's day in the sun is receding somewhat, I felt it would be a good idea to expose some of the groups for those seeking out new metal.

BONDED BY BLOOD
Habitat: Pomona, California
Defining Audio Characteristics: Early Exodus gone progressive metal
Best Output: Exiled to Earth

DEVASTATOR
Habitat: Somewhere in Florida
Defining Audio Characteristics: Blackened Thrash metal steamroller
Best Output: Nuclear Proliferation

EVILE
Habitat: Huddersfield, England
Defining Audio Characteristics: Middle-Period Slayer-style crunch on steroids
Best Output: Infected Nations

GAMA BOMB
Habitat: Newry, Northern Ireland
Defining Audio Characteristics: 1950's pulp sci-fi lyrics over Anthrax-meets-Suicidal Tendencies style party thrash
Best Output: Tales from the Grave in Space

LICH KING
Habitat: Amherst, Massachusetts
Defining Audio Characteristics: Goofy party thrash with a preference toward lyrics about zombies, sci-fi movies and cereal?
Best Output: Necromantic Maelstrom

MERCILESS DEATH
Habitat: Canyon Country, California
Defining Audio Characteristics: Dark Angel-style rifftastic thrash metal performing the soundtrack to a particularly gory George A. Romero movie
Best Output: Realm of Terror

NOCTURNAL FEAR
Habitat: Detroit, Michigan
Defining Audio Characteristics: The Motor City Sodom
Best Output: Code of Violence

SKELETONWITCH
Habitat: Athens, Ohio
Defining Audio Characteristics: Mastodon covering early Venom and Hellhammer
Best Output: Breathing the Fire

TOXIC HOLOCAUST
Habitat: Portland, Oregon
Defining Audio Characteristics: The bastard offspring of Hellhammer, Venom, and Bathory out for revenge against the society that spurned it
Best Output: An Overdose of Death

WARBRINGER
Habitat: Newbury Park, California
Defining Audio Characteristics: Brutal thrash in the vein of Demolition Hammer, Morbid Saint, and German bands meeting the sound of an epic tank battle
Best Output: Waking Into Nightmares

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I am Irish, along with quite a bit of other stuff, so I thought I would take the opportunity today to play some Irish metal bands. Here is what is in store:

CRUACHAN: FOLK-LORE
Cruachan is a folk metal band with a heavy emphasis on the folk elements. They use a variety of traditional instruments such as tin whistles, banjos, pipes, and a violin. The result is an album that sounds a lot like a traditional Celtic folk album. The metal elements are impressive when they are there, but they are not present as often. The vocals are handled by a female lead and a male backing vocalist. The male does some rougher yells along with clean vocals while the female simply sings cleanly.

GAMA BOMB: TALES FROM THE GRAVE IN SPACE
Gama Bomb is a part of the retro thrash metal wave. They happen to be from Ireland, but do not play anything that sounds uniquely Irish. They are more from the Anthrax/Overkill East Coast style of thrash metal. It's fast and it's a lot of fun. Gama Bomb deliver a lot of humor in their lyrics, as can probably be deduced from the album's title. They are one of the better bands in the retro thrash scene.

MOURNING BELOVETH: A DISEASE FOR THE AGES
Death/doom metal merchants Mourning Beloveth certainly know how to put together a morose and depressing album. Holy shit is this thing oppressive. It's five tracks and damn near an hour's worth of music. The music crawls at an exhaustingly slow pace. Gama Bomb above is a lot of fun, it's pretty clear that Mourning Beloveth are on the complete opposite end of that spectrum.

PRIMORDIAL: TO THE NAMELESS DEAD
I will also be listening to A Journey's End, but discussing the above-listed album more because it is absolutely amazing. It's one of my favorite albums from 2007. Primordial plays folk metal mixed with some black metal elements. The band actually started out as a black metal band but slowly diminished much of those elements in favor of a melodic and hauntingly powerful overall sound. The lyrical themes mostly involve historical topics, making this a truly Irish metal album.

WAYLANDER: HONOUR AMONGST CHAOS
Finally, we have Waylander, another Celtic/folk metal band, but unlike Cruachan, Waylander has much more metal influences and in fact, Waylander is far closer to a black metal band than any of the above bands. Waylander's album is one of the bright spots in folk metal. Yes, there are lots of folk instruments and melodies, but this is also very clearly a metal album.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Several other bands have played Irish-sounding metal but are not actually from Ireland. They deserve a mention.

ELUVEITIE

SKYCLAD

THE LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG

Initial Impressions: Gama Bomb: Tales from the Grave in Space

One aspect of some 1980's thrash that has been overlooked a little with many (though not all) of the newer thrash metal bands is the sense of fun. Groups like Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, and others had quite a bit of fun and goofy lyrics. Some of the newer bands like Municipal Waste, Lich King, and Merciless Death follow along with that, but many others are very serious. Enter Ireland's Gama Bomb.

This is just a goofball album. First of all is the title, bringing to mind 1950's-era comic books. Then, there's the fact that the CD booklet is basically a pulp comic book with the lyrics to the songs printed in the dialog boxes of the characters. Then, we have the song names: "Last Ninjas Unite", "Mussolini Mosh", "We Respect You", etc. It's clear this band has a good time.

Musically, this is an energetic album, featuring bouncy riffs, higher-pitched clean vocals, and a frenetic pace. The band is quite good at its craft. The songs are very memorable, as is the album as a whole. This is a good, fun listen.