I was almost asleep before Nuclear Salvation kicked my ass!

I have to hand it to modern thrashers Nuclear Salvation. Tonight I was in a jaded and tired disposition as I thumbed through the various thrash bands I've been meaning to check out.

As the opening riff to Nuclear Salvation's Hate Anthem kicked in, I sighed as it repeated through a few measures. Usually by this time, when I am in such a blank-headed state, I would either skip ahead in the song to see if anything catches my attention or turn it off and move on. Good thing I was more tired than jaded since i was too lazy to do either, so I let the song play.

Then after the first verse, the riff and vocal pattern change at 1 minute and 22 seconds made my ears prick up and suddenly I was at full attention. My head started to move as the riff kicked my ass back into the land of the living.

Then again and again, Nuclear Salvation would find that sweet spot in a crushing, galloping riff and would ride that son of a bitch for maximum headbanging impact.

Catchy melody is not lost on these guys as they are able to blend it seamlessly in their barrage of harsh rhythms. In fact, the entire solo section at the end of A Miracle For Sale gives the feeling of speeding along on a runway until it takes off in a flight of uplifting wonder before crashing back to the ground in a metal wreckage of chunky riffs and searing vocals.

After jamming through all of their available songs on their Reverbnation page, I was so impressed with their blend of some Slayer worship with slamming melodic death metal, that I went through several repeated listens. Just think - moments before, my head was full of mud and yawns and now I'm pumped and inspired to write about the awesomeness that is Nuclear Salvation.

That's the power of good music!

Listen to the tune below and then check them out here!

Ecopolis wishes you a Happy New Year!

San Jose's ECOPOLIS is starting off the new year by offering their two available songs as a free download on their Reverbnation page!

They will be offering this for one week only, so take advantage while you can.

I had to give their musical charity a quick plug because speaking as a fan of deathrash filled with speed, groove, and raw aggression, Ecopolis cranks out some top notch stuff. If you don't believe me, check out the goodies below, download them here, and then Facebook them here to say "Happy New Year!"

18 Wheels of Justice's Christmas gift!

The guys from the Boston metal powerhouse 18 WHEELS OF JUSTICE are offering their Execution album as a free download during this holiday weekend!

Head over to their Reverbnation page and take advantage of the band's Yuletide joy. Afterward, hit them up on Facebook and thank them for the gift!

Thanks, 18WoJ!

If, by chance, you are stumbling upon this page after the Ghost of Christmas Present became the Ghost of Christmas Past, go check out 18 Wheels of Justice anyway (or click here to see the small write-up I posted about them on this here blog).

Merry Christmas!

Aggressive ROCKS!

Colombia's AGGRESSIVE must have found a way to bottle the old-school Bay Area flavor and pour it directly into their music.

From the wall-of-sound whirlwind of both blazing and chunky riffs to the Killian-esque vocals, these guys lay down some quality west coast-influenced thrash metal that easily bring to mind flares of Vio-Lence.

If this appeals to you, by all means, check this out immediately. If it does not appeal to you, what are you doing here? Go watch the Flintstones or something.

You can listen to most (if not all) of their songs on their Reverbnation page and the only place I found their album Predators' Arrival for sale is on Brutalized Records website.

Listen to a couple tracks below and then hit 'em up on Facebook!

New track from Mentally Defiled!

Here is a new track from Greek thrashers Mentally Defiled titled Retro Nerd.

The theme of the lyrics remind me of Sabbath's Iron Man, except it's geared toward comic book/D&D geeks.

As a comic/old-school rpg geek, I knew lots of dudes as described in this song and it makes me glad that I was never the type to bully.

The music is pure old-school thrash, as killer as anything Mentally Defiled has put out. I love these guys!

Check it out below, and you don't know about Mentally Defiled yet, go to their Reverbnation page here and get...more...METAL!

MORiA ROCKS! Also, thanks for the FREE metal!

Score another for Reverbnation! While roaming the metal bands there, I found MORiA, a thrash/groove metal band from the Ukraine.

MORiA drive their songs in double bass drumming and e-string chugging, making it all heavy as a battleship full of rhinos. The dynamics between the thrash assault and the groove breakdowns are crushing!

Listen below, and if you like what you hear, head over to MORiA's Reverbnation page where you can download each of their killer songs...for FREE!

Nice!

Neil Wonnell's Metalmouth online broadcast

If you're looking for a dose of metal, go check out Neil Wonnell's Metalmouth online broadcast over at Reverbnation.

From Wonnell himself:

"I play old school/new school Thrash Metal, the occasional punk anthem, Metal classics, plenty of unsigned bands from around the globe, and give you just enough craziness to keep everybody havin' a good time!"

He is scheduled to post a new show every weekend, so head over to his site and check it out.

METAL!

Rising Dark ROCKS!

AH! More Italian metal! What is in the water over in Italy to produce so much good METAL? I've mentioned many great Italian thrash bands here before, and here I go again.

From Ravenna we have Rising Dark, a traditional thrash band that sounds a bit like a stripped down Testament. Even vocalist Michael Crimson reminds me of a young Chuck Billy, complete with Billy-esque vocal patterns.

Mind you, this is all based off hearing one song titled This is War, and thanks to Reverbnation, you all can check out the straight-forward headbanging riffs, seamless song structure, and enough grit to the song that it makes you hungry for more. Rising Dark need to post more songs!

Meanwhile, check out the tune and then check out the band here.

Injury ROCKS!

My God, score another one for Reverbnation! Just a few clicks and I am neck-deep into thrash bands I never would know exist.

Which brings me to Itay's own Injury. These guys play some punishing thrash -catchy, harsh and ruthless.

Here is what their bio says on YouTube:

Injury was born on September 2008, from the collaboration of four musicians friends from their local scene, with several live acts performed. The quartet immediately got known for a sound made of sharp and granitic riffs, that never make one forget the '80/'90 attitude of the old style thrash. Injury's music combines the immediacy of the "anthems" of the genre with the constant research of the sound power of the last modern productions, getting ispired by bands like Anthrax, Megadeth, Exodus, Heathen, Testament, etc.

Check out their tune Denying My Soul.



I love it! Check them out at MySpace and Reverbnation.

New Demiricous tunes streaming and what about Master?

I know I post a lot about these guys, but too bad.

Over at the Demiricous official Reverbnation page, they posted two new songs from their upcoming EP. The tracks, titled ...And it Drives the Heathen and Esoteric Confrontation freaking rock, and are everything one would expect from Demiricous.

Again, I would post the streaming widget here, but it screws up the blog for some reason. So, if you want to check out the tunes, go here.

In other news, I reported here that Demiricous will be playing a demo release show with Master on March 10th. Well, it looks like Master had to cancel their U.S. tour due to visa confusion, so it appears the the show will forge ahead with supporters Mobile Deathcamp and Nak'ay.

Nuclear ROCKS!

If you don't scan Reverbnation for new bands, you need to start. Through a search on their fine website, I found a handful of killer metal bands.

One such band is Nuclear from Chile. Harsh and brutally fast, these guys crush from note one. Here is a sampling from their new album titled JEHOVIRUS.

*EDIT: I had to remove the embedded song from Reverbnation because the code was seriously bogging down the blog. Reverbnation needs to fix that! However, here is a link to Nuclear's page where you can sample a few of their tunes.