Barrage of Noise

I love EP. It’s a great comeback with an impressive new sound, but Hirax has not forgotten their roots at all. The vocals are some of the best I’ve ever heard from Katon. His voice has deepened and changed, but not in a negative way like that of Tom Araya’s or Dave Mustaine’s. In my perspective his new voice gives the songs more integrity, more so than their older work. On the old albums Katon’s voice could be heard cracking or sounding a bit strained here or there, but there’s none of that whatsoever here. His powerful thrash screams and melodic singing here and there just give this piece of art so much that sets it apart.

The music itself is true to the sound of Hirax, without being predictable at all. The riffs are raw, heavy and thrashy. They’re not recycled among themselves or any all too common problems like that. The drums do everything to make the music sound powerful, without having the annoying purpose of being obnoxiously loud and drowning out everything else.

Another thing that makes me enjoy this album for the most part is the way everything fits together. It’s pretty modern sounding, without being polished: Inaudible bass, crunching guitars, booming drums, and well-clarified vocals that aren’t buried under everything else. The instruments fit each other and the vocals in an almost perfect assault. The production compliments the music quite well. It’s raw, rugged and powerful, yet pure. Too many bands, especially in this day and age, seem to have a lot of trouble hitting that perfection mark.

The only shortcoming I find with this album is that the whole thing a bit too sporadic for its own good. Being highly inconsistent with unconventionally short songs, it makes for a quick listen that almost leaves you thinking “what happened?” With two instrumentals and almost all of the eight the tracks being short, I listened to the whole thing almost three times over the course of writing this short review.

Overall, this is a must have for Hirax fans. Also I would recommend this for people just getting into Hirax. Go pick it up if you enjoy some great underground thrash metal.

Some info for the youngsters among us: in the mid-eighties U.S. band Hirax released a number of Speed/Thrash Metal oriented records, of which “Hate, Fear and Power” (1986) was particularly notable. Unfortunately, the band quit at the end of that same decade.
However, in 2000 Hirax was revived by vocalist Katon W. DePena, according to his own words after it became clear to him that Hirax was more populair than ever. One year later -fourteen years after releasing the then last album “Not Dead Yet”- “Barrage of Noise” (released through Deep Six Records) was a fact.

One could ask himself if there has changed a lot between 1987 and the present, musically speaking. The answer would be something like ‘not much’.
The first thing that struck me was the analogue ‘feel’ and the roughness of the overall sound on this CD. Quite the opposite of todays’ sometimes slick and overproduced albums and in addition to this, most certainly a relieve as well!
From the opening track “Murder One” on it’s furious, whipping (Thrash) Metal all the way, especially tracks like “Broken Neck” and “Mouth Sewn Shut” reminding me strongly of the ‘good ol’ days’.

However, the most striking about “Barrage of Noise” are the vocals of mister DePena. He’s singing in a somewhat lower key than in former days but still I do hear the screaming-like vocals which, back then, reminded me of John Connely (Nuclear Assault), adding up to the varying sound. The closing instrumental track “French Pearl” is also a jewel. Variety indeed!
Besides DePena no trace of other original bandmembers, but I am to understand that after the recording of “Barrage of Noise” Hirax has been reinforced with axeman Jim Durkin (ex Dark Angel).

Just like Phantasm Hirax is a major trip down to Memory Lane and if you’re only the slightest bit into good old fashioned Thrash Metal this CD is just the thing for you.
An excellent come back!

I didn't think it was possible for an 80's heavy/thrash metal band to keep the same sound in the 80's up until the 90's and the new millenium. Some bands sell out like Slayer and Metallica, some bands change but stay good like Overkill, Sodom..etc. Hirax didn't sell out, didn't get better, they just stayed their same 80's style of heavy/thrash metal with some hardcore elements. Thinks Antrax meets God Forbids vocals. The riffs I find most simmiliar to Antharx's of the bands I know, and at times the screaming on this album sounds like God Forbid. More overly thought its much cleaner, so more like if the vocalist from God Forbid sang cleaner.

I think this album is an ep, its pretty short, although 8 tracks, some are like 2 minutes long. The actual music is raw, pure, and definatly unchanged with time. They have an 80's thrash sound. The riffs are heavy and raw, the drums do everything to make the music sound more raw and don't be annoyng by trying to out do everything else. It also has some great catchy vocals that are harsh and clean. I have heard much better stuff than this before, musically, in terms of how well the songs were written, and just how well each induvigual instrument sounds. What makes me like this album so much is the way everything comes together. The guitars fit the drums, the drums fit the bass, the instruments fit the vocals. Each one of the instruments taken by itself wouldn't be anything special, but when combinded they sound great. Many bands have trouble putting everything together. This release does it well.

The problems I have with it is its shortness and inconsistency. The album is overall short, no long songs, which is not a problem, but alot of the songs are short. Putting that aside there are a few breaks in the intensity and consitency of the songs with acoustic guitars and ambient affects. But those don't take away from the music that much. Its a small problem in my eyes, but enough to make me enjoy it less.

Overall if you like music with energy and uninfluenced sounds, or if you like raw 80's style thrash, this album is for you.