Nothing$ $acred

We all know that thrash metal began to fall apart at the beginning of the nineties. It was therefore all the more exciting to hear that a small number of bands fought against the zeitgeist. Lääz Rockit's output from 1991 proves evidence that these guys did not change according to the circumstances. Forget the quite asinine artwork - enjoy the music. The dudes from Oakland still had power, drive and spirit.

"Nothing$ $acred" is lively and full of energy. Its songs blew away the stench of a slowly dying scene, at least for almost 43 minutes. Released between records like "The American Way" and "Force of Habit" that do not know whether or not they want to be called a thrash album, the ten tracks stand on their own feet. This alone is laudable. Lääz Rockit do not show the violent vehemence of "Bonded by Blood", they do not have the fine instinct of "Twisted into Form" for pretty ingenious melodies and the relentless naivety of "Show no Mercy" is not their playground as well. But the album offers a refreshing breeze, a mix of carefree forward thrust, coherent, conventionally designed songs and fanatic riffs. Mid-harsh thrash is the name of the game and velocity does not come off badly. But the offering of "Nothing$ $acred" is not limited to high speed outbursts.

"Suicide City" borders on power metal. High class riffs form vigorous verses and the relatively smooth chorus relies on a very strong melody. There is not the smallest grain of kitsch, don't get me wrong. This is not that kind of power metal that kills every spontaneous move with its predictable bombast, its sticky harmonies and nerve-shattering choirs. Bone dry and heavy, Lääz Rockit go their way and the catchy background vocals, the swift solo and the expressive lead vocals are just a few examples of the great elements that characterize this track. "Nobody's Child" also does not obey the dogma of speed. It is more or less a ballad, although the rapid instrumental part adds a very vivacious touch. A solid, but no great number.

I have already mentioned the lead vocals of Michael Coons, but I have to come back to his performance. He belongs to the singers that give a band its own identity. His natural voice shines with charisma, vigour and precision. This guy is no vain self-exposer, he is always focused on doing everything he can in order to make the best out of the material. Maybe this applies for the entire group that never had an eye on creating a unique image. Lääz Rockit, forgive me this empty phrase, let the music do the talking. "Too Far Gone" with its drilling guitars, "Into the Asylum" with the alarming chorus or the nearly epic "The Enemy Within" with its fantastic bridge show impressively the spirit of honest thrash metal. Even the evocative and direct opener, a really strong number, has to struggle in order to reach the high quality of these deadly bullets.

An almost progressive instrumental with bulky riffs, a close relative of Nasty Savage's "?", closes the album. The entire work avoids meaningless fillers and offers a good flow due to very well arranged running order of the tracks. Moreover, its clearly defined, well-balanced and proper production puts this collection of sonic rockets into the right light. No doubt, the band did not make any serious mistakes during the making of "Nothing$ $acred". Too bad that the spirit of the time asked for different sounds.

I borrowed this line from the Def Leppard song of the same title (“Rocket” that is), but not as an illustration of the copious amounts of cheese that can be found here. There’s none of it, and my sole intention with it is to express my admiration for what the band had achieved. I remember how this guy happily gave me a cassette with the band ‘s first two albums in 1988 although I couldn’t quite share his excitement as I found them acceptable, but hardly exceptional American heavy/power metal opuses. Then there was this chap I came across a year later who was salivating over Laaz Rockit’s “Know Your Enemy” comparing it to Helstar’s “Nosferatu”, even finding it better than the latter. That last statement went too far since I was certain this couldn’t possibly be the case (better than Helstar’s “Nosferatu”!? Yeah, right!), but intrigued me enough to give that album a listen…

And this is how I found out that the guys had indeed made a huge step forward by embracing the speed/thrash metal idea on this third coming (which was the charm indeed), and with their power metal roots still firmly in place, had managed to come up with a really appetizing concoction. They could have also swung the other way, towards the glam, pop metal field that was also growing in popularity at the time, provided that their first two instalments weren’t too far from Motley Crue’s early days, for example, but it was to the metal fanbase’s big advantage that they didn’t do that. Considered by many the band’s finest hour, “Know Your Enemy” was a transitional album as the guys were going with the flow, hardening the course in pace with the up-and-coming speed/thrash movement, a decision that was inevitably going to reap other, more aggressive “fruit”.

Although I liked “Know Your Enemy” quite a bit, and listened to it more than just several times, it wasn’t until the late-90’s that I recalled the band with “the goofy moniker” like some fans had labelled them. It was thanks to Gack, the band’s official continuation, whose album “Fix” (1993) was played by a friend that I was visiting. I didn’t like the album as it was just another rehashed groovy post-thrash offering, but then the conversation went Laaz Rockit’s direction, and this is how I found out that they had two whole other albums released after “Know Your Enemy”, which this friend of mine gladly gave me. “Annihilation Principle” literally blew me away, an unadulterated spasmodic slab of vehement old school thrash if there ever was one; but it was the album reviewed here that completely won me for their cause.

So the band continued moving with the flow reaching the stage when the technical/progressive ways of expression came to rule, albeit for a short while, in the early-90’s on both sides of The Atlantic, and the guys felt obliged to contribute to them the way their compatriots Heathen (“Victims of Deception”) and Dark Angel (“Time Does Not Heal”) did the same year. This effort takes the middle ground between the two mentioned recordings as it’s not riddled with countless riff configurations ala the Dark Angel opus; neither does it contain any overlong, somewhat monotonous, compositions that were featured on the Heathen showing. It flows more smoothly than both also resembling another not very known masterpiece, Wrath’s “Nothing To Fear”, only more conventionally and more directly executed than the latter. “In the Name of the Father” is an assured opener the band thrashing with conviction resembling the early feats of Testament, not complicating the environment too much, with Coons’ excellent attached, dramatic vocals soaring above the sea of steel, sharp riffs. “Into the Asylum” is already a handsomely technical proposition with intricate riff knots unleashed as “an appetizer”, not disappearing completely later, but showing up here and there to “disrupt” the highly-stylized melee which is also graced by dazzling lead sections. “Greed Machine” is a more orthodox conglomerate of fast and slow rhythms leaving the more intriguing motifs for “Too Far Gone”, a marvellous technical speed/thrasher the guys shredding with precision keeping things within the mid-paced confines.

“Curiosity Kills” is an epitome of immediacy, blitzkrieg hard-hitting thrash the band having fun, moshing with vigour and overt enthusiasm, pulling the breaks for “Suicide City”, a heavier stomping number with a few speedier outbreaks. “The Enemy Within” gallops with the finest horses out there, adding the odd semi-technical quirk at irregular intervals, all the way to “Nobody’s Child”, a nice heavy semi-ballad. “Silence Is a Lie” embarks on a more engaging, technical journey with excellent overlapping rhythms the established up-tempo seldom broken on this uplifting roller-coaster. Thumbs up for the band leaving the highlight for the very end, “Necropolis”, an exemplary instrumental piece which shows the lead guitarist as a consummate performer of Shrapnel proportions, weaving both melodic and twisted tapestries, also adding a couple of moments of surreal shredding technicality, preserving the most astounding whirlwind of compulsive riff-vortexes for the finale.

Mission accomplished for one of the most unsung heroes from the US metal underground, 1991 being their last active year, under that name at least, as well as for the other mentioned acts. Testing the aggro/groovy waters was definitely an option later on, but done under the form of this “Fix” already mentioned earlier, it was a bit more than total humiliation. It was good that the guys wrapped it on afterwards without any more similar detrimental experimentations. “Left for Dead” was a fairly surprising comeback effort in 2008 which saw Coons and the guitar player Aaron Jellum joined by a group of new faces for the creation of this not very convincing blend of classic thrash and Gack-esque post-thrashy groovisms; not the finest reunion endeavour compared to the abundant classic metal pool of the new millennium, and one that logically hasn’t seen a follow-up yet; the band left the scene with something “sacred” some 25 years ago… it’s still waiting for a dignified sequel in this or in some other life.

First off, let me say that I really like this album. Some great furious songs and a pretty high average pace for Lääz standards. This album came out during the days that thrash was losing ground, Grunge and the second wave of black metal were arising and death metal was really taking over the scene by storm. Most other eighties thrash metal bands in those days got mellow, watered down. But not Laaz Rockit! Before disbanding this was their loudest album!

But honestly, because of the more aggressive compositions and performance this album is more monotone than ‘Know Your Enemy’ and ‘Annihilation Principle’ were. Phil Kettner had been replaced by Scott Sargent. As a result the songs and riffs are more pure thrash and less varied than before. Secondly they also had an entirely new rhythm section! Changing 3 out of 5 member does have its effect on the sound and performance. The last remains of their earlier rocking days are gone. And because of the straight forward approach the diversity of the albums suffers a bit.

Also Michael Coons’ vocals had lost some of its character. He sings more aggressive here than before and even though he does it nicely I honestly think as a vocalist he could and should have done more with his capabilities. It’s a choice he made himself. I think the album could have been slightly more dynamic if he would have sung like he did on the previous two albums.

As a result this is a very good album. More than just good even, it’s excellent. But this album is of a different category than the earlier mentioned ‘Know Your Enemy’ and ‘Annihilation Principle’. It would be like comparing the Slayer albums “Reign and Blood” and “South Of Heaven” or the difference between Anthrax’ “Spreading The Disease” and “Persistence Of Time”. Really a big change.

I still remember it as Laaz Rockit-Phase Three. “Nothing'$ $acred” almost sounded too much like a different band, but a damn good one!

Well this is it folks, the last official Laaz Rockit studio release. It marked an ending of a Bay Area legend that never received the recognition or praise that they deserved. In retropsect, with the folding of this band also came the unfortunate demise of Bay Area Thrash Metal as we once knew and loved. There is not many surprises on this album, just straight forward Thrash done with percise execution and musical genius that oozed out of every bar on each and every song. I suppose that this album may have been a little darker sounding than the previous two albums. That would be based mainly on the fact that Jon Torres was actually involved in alot of the song writting. Another fact that few people know is that Ken Savich's lead guitar mastery, which is similar to Alex Skolnick meets Michael Romeo style of playing is dispursed throughout this incrdible shred-laden virtuoso style guitar album. One final note of discussion based on the line-up, this album also marks the introduction of both Scott Sargent (exKILLING CULTURE) as well as Dave Chavari (ex MOD, PRO-PAIN).
Muscically, Laaz are at the top of their game. Hands down, this album is about as complex as anything you'll ever hear when it comes to being technical thrash metal.
Creatively, like I said before there's not really anything on here that you probably haven't heard before...the only thing is, Laaz just do it better than everybody else ever did!
Guitar players take serious note. This is a shredder of an album and even if you're not a fan of thrash metal...you will absolutely love the solos on this album that would even make the Sharpnel recording artists hit the playback button.

This album is filled with great thrash! In the Name of the Father and the Gun opens this album with a fast action drum beat and killer thrash style riffs and licks that remind me a lot of old Testament. Especially The Legacy style with the harmonized solo's. Even the solos to this song remind me of The New Order ones. Throughout the album the riffs and licks get better, showing great musicanship -simply thrash at its best! There is a lot of harmonzing between the guitars, which is something I haven't seen a lot in thrash metal, a great example of this is throughout the song Too Far Gone and The Enemy Within. The vocals are very thashy sounding, very mellow toned. There aren't any high squeals or screams, but the vocals are very agrresive driven that gives the music a kick ass feel! Another thing that sticks out is the bass. At times you can hear the bass slaps and picks, which is extremely killer for headbanging thrash metal. Great examples of this are the intro to Into the Asylum and Greed Machine. Throughout the entire album the drums provide a clash of slow beats for fast riffing, and fast pased drumming that will leave you headbanging for hours. There is one clean part on this album, in the song entitled Nobody's Child. The vocals during this part are very clean, which is weird. Then when it starts to get heavy, it goes back to its softness and adds a mexican sounding solo, like old Testament did a lot. This song is probably the weak part of this album, but it has some cool harmonzing riffs in the end. The rest of the album picks up with blazing guitar riffs and thrashy solo's (especially Necropolis) that will literally leave you headbanging for hours. This album is pure thrash, and a sure sign that thrash didn't completely die during the 90's! If you like old school Testament or just all in your face pumped up thrash riffs with great drum beats and thrasy vocals, this is for you! Highly recommended!