Sweden's hardcore thrashers LOWEST CREATURE! Yeah, they kick ass!

I love finding bands like Sweden’s own LOWEST CREATURE - chugging thrash with a nice crossover bent.

Admittedly, I’ve only heard the one available song “Certain Pain”, but if the rest of the band’s debut demo is as strong as this track, those tunes will earn a nice spot in my regular music listening rotation.

As for the lone track, it rides on the strength of a stomping mid-paced riff that would bust the rust off any deadened mosh pit. The vocals are wrought with punk angst, driving alongside the head slamming rhythm. It’s in your face and it kicks ass!

Check out Certain Pain below (which is also available as a FREE download), and hit up Lowest Creature here.

Tacit Fury ROCKS!

I was going to add a small Facebook post about Russia’s death metal machine TACIT FURY, but as I jammed out to their recent album “A Social Berserker”, I came to the conclusion that a couple meager sentences wouldn’t do these guys justice.

So once again I’ve dusted off the Blog to make some verbal noise for a band that needs to be heard past the limitations of a ‘non-boosted’ Facebook post.

First and foremost, Tacit Fury knows dynamics, and the three-piece will work the riffs and drums together for maximum neck-injury impact. They utilize frenzied rhythms, mid-paced head-chuggers, and the occasional blast beat to offer variety to the listener.  Songs such as Release the Lions, Chronology Bleached, and Overblade work these song-writing tools to build a catastrophic catalog of face-pummeling perfection.

Those of you not keen on the death metal style of vocals should still give Tacit Fury a try. Although the music is good enough to overshadow some peoples’ taste in the vocals, I couldn’t imagine these tunes fronted with any other type of delivery. Although many death metal vocalists can sound similar, there are indeed both “good” and “terrible” death metal vocalists, and Fury’s frontman Enoth is damn good at what he does.

Check out the tunes below, and if you dig ‘em as much as I think you will, the $3 asking price for a 12-track album is a damn good deal. As a side note, they have made their "Horrors From Depth" release available as a FREE download here.

Hit them up on Facebook here.

Getting high on the face-breaking punk/thrash of HI-GH!

As a fan of the raw punk and thrash attack of Itaily’s VIOLENTOR, it’s no wonder why I instantly fell for the rumble and roll of HI-GH.

Yeah, these guys harness enough raw power to kill an elephant, grinding away at teeth-shattering punk and speed metal riffage mixed with head banging rhythms and venomous vocals. At times, with the use of dynamic repetition in their riffs and with vocalist Tommaso Slowly’s in-your-face performance, HI-GH sounds like a speed/thrash-based, less industrial Ministry on steroids (Check out the end to 'HI-GH (Can You Roll It For Me)'). All this is in wonderful contrast to some of HI-GH’s more, shall we say, soulful guitar work, showing a bit of love for their 70s metal influences.

Catchy and pissed, THIS is thrash ’n’ roll at it’s best! Give HI-GH a listen below and then check out their Facebook page here.

Free embed music player from ReverbNation.com

EXALOUD ROCKS!

Although I am frequently updating the NWOTM Blog’s Facebook page, I’ve been keeping this site dark until I can devote some time toward its redesign. However, a feller by the name of Aldo posted the name “EXALOUD” on the afore-mentioned Facebook page, and possessing such a curious soul, I looked these guys up online.

Needless to say, I found Exaloud, and so here I am dusting off the NWOTM Blog to brag about the extreme ass-kicking these Russian based thrashers delivered to me. MY GOD!!!!

However, before my well needed ass-kicking, during my research I found a handful of live videos of Exaloud performing a mass of Metallica cover tunes. Not bad, but not knowing anything about these guys, I thought they were simply a local cover band with maybe a couple mediocre originals thrown in for fun.

Was I in for a rude awakening!

Their name led me to a nondescript Facebook page as well as a Russian social media page (which I cannot read). So I still had zero info on these guys, but I was eventually led to their Soundcloud page, and this is where the thrash heavens opened up.

What I found were eleven songs of riff-laden aggression. Thrash metal that could easily rival the best of ‘em. While one could hear the old-school Metallica/Megadeth worship in these tunes (LOTS of Mustaine-driven bad-assery), Exaloud took these influences and breathed new life in the genre, creating a batch of songs that are vibrant and hungry.

The dynamics to each tune are pure ear candy, and the solos (as well as the rhythms under them) become living beasts, standing out as vital parts to the song structure.

I must make mention again of the riffs throughout - all tight, catchy, and damn near perfect. I would pick out a highlight, but since I am still digesting these marvelous tunes, I can’t pinpoint a favorite. I can only say that I would be hard-pressed to find any filler within these eleven songs.

Exaloud is a triumphant step up for the New Wave of Thrash Metal and if there is justice in the world, the band will eventually rake in legions of fans to savor what they have to offer. I hope this little write-up can help in the slightest.

Check out all eleven tracks below!! YEAH!!!!

Thanks, Aldo!!!

Lenny Troo Frasher: Headbanging

A great time for thrash fans! New stuff from Toxic Holocaust, Warbringer, and more!

The past couple of weeks have been good for thrash fans! We find ourselves swimming in newly released material from Toxic Holocaust, lyric videos from Warbringer and Onslaught, and a full music vid from the mighty Annihilator.

The tune from Toxic Holocaust sounds vicious and hungry, assuring that the new album Chemistry of Consciousness is going to be a monster. 

The same could easily be said about Warbringer's track Hunter Seeker. A hard-hitting thrasher with sweeps of brutally melodic touches. Keep in mind that the new album 'IV: Empires Collapse' includes guitarist Jeff Potts and bassist Ben Mottsman, plucked from the raging bad-ass machine known as Mantic Ritual. This album will crush!

Onslaught's Chaos Is King is truly a wall of sonic violence. An absolute relentless attack of metal. It doesn't get scarier than this.

Annihilator's No Way Out is a rolling thrash tune with elements of hard rock that echo the rockin' stomp of Clutch (and I'm not saying that just because vocalist Dave Padden is sporting the thick Neil Fallon beard). Great tune!

Anyway, enough babbling! Let's scroll down and check out some killer METAL!!

Weekend Breakdown featuring Battery and Animator

If things would have gone to plan, I would be congratulating Denmark's own BATTERY on their record deal as well as the November release of their new album Armed With Rage.

However, due to some disagreements between band and label, the deal fell through, leaving our brothers-in-thrash without a home for their already-recorded album. Sure, this isn't the first time, nor the last in which a band will wind up in this type of circumstance, but it still sucks all the same. Remember the mess involving Tantara early last year?

So while Battery explores some options, they were cool enough to share a few of their newly recorded tunes, offering up a big bite of what we'll find on Armed With Rage once it's finally released.

Check out the songs below and hit the band up here.









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Speaking of new albums, Ireland's ANIMATOR released their new album Blacklisted this past summer. The album crushes with interesting riffage and cool vocals. When I say "interesting", I am not downplaying the songwriting in a smirky patronizing manner. No, it IS freakin' interesting, serving up thrash with pure rock and tastes of punk which add colorful layers of keen madness that is catchy and wonderfully ass-kicking. Songs such as Ultra '53 have so much crammed into it without feeling weighed down. Then we have the tune Manipulator which is a fantastic hard rock/thrash hybrid which actually brought a bit of DEVO to my mind. What the hell, right?

Although it might sound as if Animator is throwing a bunch of ideas against the wall to see what sticks, rest assured that their attempts are solid and pay off almost every time. Also, the stellar musicianship help to make these musical endeavors shine. Damn, those guitar solos are slamming!

So, here's the bonus: Animator has made Blacklisted available as a FREE download on the band's Bandcamp page. Nice! Check out the songs below, and then visit them over on Facebook.