The recent thrash revival has shown the demand for old school balls to the wall thrash is alive and well in the metal world today and one band who are willing to give us this is Suicidal Angels. Hailing from Greece they have just released their fifth album Divide and Conquer and will be looking to spread their blood and thunder thrash approach to the masses.
It’s a plan they don’t take long to put into effect. From the opening seconds of “Marching Over Blood” old school thrash heads should feel right at home. This is thrash as your grandma used to cook it and with a big shout along chorus thrown into the mix, I’m sure many people will listen to it with a smile on their face. It’s actually an idea that continues through a lot of this album. It becomes clear very quickly that Suicidal Angels have a theme and when they stick to it they are there best. Three to four minute long thrash tracks with fast guitars and shout along choruses, what isn’t to like?
That’s not to say this moment is completely bereft of experimentation. “Control the Twisted Mind” opens with orchestral style symphonic’s (although a lot less underplayed than that sentence maybe makes it sound) before slipping back into the standard formula. However, these moments are rare and really this is a thrash album that apes those classic bands. If you can’t hear Slayer and Exodus in there you’re just not trying, while “Seed of Evil” screams Metallica.
I was reading another website the other day and they describe this kind of music as rethrash. I don’t know if that’s a popular saying I’ve missed but I thought it was pretty much the perfect summation of what this kind of music is (and I kind of wished I’d come up with it myself). It’s that that makes this a hard album to hate, it’s thrash metal by the book and it’s read the book well enough to know how to keep us entertained. On the other hand it’s a also a difficult album to love, as there is no denying we have heard all of this before.
Ramblings About Wrestling 
Leave a comment