As Above, So Below

So I've been on a thrash binge recently and found this little fucker on Thrashmageddon. Honestly, I had no idea what I was in for. Seriously, where did this come from!? It has the pure catastrophic riffage of fucking Torture Squad but more syncopated; It has seriously tasty solowork with melodies on par with Heathen; and these bastards don't let up! I mean song after song, they grab you by the balls and make you their prison bitch with absolutely no choice other than to headbang until the album ends.

So how does this album rule so much? I've briefly touched on riffage and solowork in the previous paragraph and I shall expand on them. This is indeed a canonical example of fine riffage, listen to "Isolation." Does that not make your head bang? Does that not make you thrash about? That one riff alone, you'll know the one I'm talking about, is pretty much sold me on the band. Then comes that solo, with that arpeggio half-sweep, *orgasmic sigh*. Damn the Germans sure kicked the American's ass in thrash, then and now. Let's say that again, this is better than most of the new breed of thrash bands from America or even jolly ole England.

But what about the other instruments? Let's see: Vox, check; Bass, double check; Drums, you betcha! The vox here are quite good, he comes from the same school of vox as Schmier or Angelripper and that is a plus my friends. The bass is actually audible and this guy plays interesting bassruns, this is the area that most thrash bands forget. The drums here are very good, this guy must've taken lessons from that guy in Torture Squad or Ventor, their influence cannot be denied and although the drumming may sound pedestrian at times, overall this man is capable of more than the standard thrash beat and more than capable of capturing your attention.

The production here is typical clean thrash...yeah it sounds like an oxymoron but bear with me. The production still retains the thrash feel while being clean. You can hear all the instruments although the drums and bass are slightly buried. The guitars and vox are pulled upfront and the tone for the guitar absolutely kicks ass. The production is clean because it's free from buzzes, crackles, reverb and other production no-nos.

Get it? Hell yes! By any means necessary. An album that is not to be missed, although the first few songs are kinda short. All in all, essential thrash...from '08!

This is without a doubt an amazing year for thrash, with dozens of great releases, reunions, festivals, etc. One of the highlights is this album: thrash metal with balls, ready to kick poser ass. Before I delve deeper into it, I'm going to advice all thrashers to stop wasting time reading this review and start looking for a copy.

The album starts of with a bunch of relatively short tracks, all straight-up-your-ass, neck wrecking thrash songs full of great riffs. The riffage reminds one of Artillery at times, which is obviously a good thing. Vocals sound raw and aggressive, occasionally crossing into falsetto area (though not much). Solo's are satisfying, but not out of the world. Doesn't matter, because overall the guitar work is very good.

A couple of samples of warfare provide variation, although that's not really necessary given the awesome riffs. After some short (2-3 min.) and regular (4-5 min.) songs I was blown away by a 9 minute epic track, easily the highlight of the album. A great guitar (and bass) solo of nearly 5 minutes in length left me sitting there, not being able to utter anything other than "holy shit".

This feeling is enhanced thanks to the 5 minute long instrumental that follows. These two tracks alone provide Headshot a place in the "best of 2008 thrash" releases. The final song could have been the second part of the instrumental, but the band choose to split them. Not a good decision if you ask me, though that doesn't really matter because it's another awesome thrash track.

The band has quite a unique sound (what can't be said of most of the current thrash bands) which is quite interesting and headbangable. Oh and as for the rest of the band? Well: the bass is hearable and good, while the drums are good too. The production is great, leaving a raw touch to the vocals and luckily not mixing in the drums too loud. If you like thrash, get this album!