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The Anatomy Of – Ultra-Violence

It hasn’t been too long since we told you about Turin’s Ultra-Violence, a band approaching thrash metal from a clever and convincing perspective. The secret to the formula

6 years ago

It hasn’t been too long since we told you about Turin’s Ultra-Violence, a band approaching thrash metal from a clever and convincing perspective. The secret to the formula was injecting it with plenty of heavy metal influences, found on emotional outros, killer bass lines and larger than life choruses. Seeing as the band hail from what we’d consider a “musical periphery” and don’t exactly conform to many of the habits of the more mainstream and settled scenes of metal, digging into their influences presented us with a tantalizing opportunity. And thus, we are proud to present to you today a host of interesting picks from Loris Castiglia (vocals/guitars).

Looking through this list makes a lot of sense with the breakneck riffs of Operation Misdirection playing in your ear. Seeing Anthrax on this list is certainly no surprise but neither is Evile and, indeed, Onslaught‘s lesser appreciated release. Taken together, the list reflects Ultra-Violence’s broad approach to thrash and everything which makes the genre so great, drawing from classic and modern iterations of the genre and from everything in between. Turn up the volume, stretch that neck in preparation of head-banging and head on down below for the list. Oh, and don’t forget to grab the album right here. Let’s get to it!


The 5 albums I’m going to mention have been very important to the formation of our style and sound. We learned a lot by listening to these records and we definitely wouldn’t sound the same if it weren’t for them. Of course the majority of the Metallica discography has been crucial as well. They started it all, for me at least, but I don’t want to include them because it’s pretty obvious and I want to have enough room to talk about less popular bands and give them the credit they deserve. So, let’s get started.

Anthrax – Among The Living (1987)

When I first found out about Anthrax and this album in particular, they instantly became my favorite band for the following two years, at least. I was blown away by their riffs and gang vocals. I think all the gang vocals you hear in our songs are mostly because of them (and Exodus, too).

Havok – Time Is Up (2011)

This album taught us that thrash metal could be fresh and interesting even 35 years after its birth. We loved it, Havok became our idols (still are) and we wanted our songs to sound like the ones on this album. If you listen to our debut EP and our first album you’ll notice it for sure. Specifically, the drum parts on “Time Is Up” are amazing and we learned a lot from them.

Sylosis – Conclusion Of An Age (2008)

I didn’t like this album at first; I was in an old school thrash metal period of my life (which I think we’ve all been through at some point) so I didn’t like the modern sound and the scream/clean metal-core vocals. But then it just grew on me, a lot. I think I love every single song and riff on it and this album gave me a lot of inspiration on the melodic death side of our band. Sylosis changed their singer and their style after this debut album and they became the awesome and unique sounding band they are nowadays. After that, they released three amazing albums which I like a lot more than this one.

Evile – Enter The Grave (2007)

Same as for the Havok album, this one was one of the first (probably the very first) album of the new generation of thrash metal bands that we listened to. It contains a lot of amazing guitar riffs and solos and it sounds raw and aggressive. I love their last two records as well, maybe even more than Enter The Grave, but this one was a huge influence on Ultra-Violence.

Onslaught – Sounds Of Violence (2011)

I consider this to be the best Onslaught album. I know they released some very important albums for the genre in the past, but this one is one of my all time favorites. I think I’ve been influenced a lot by the vocals on this one. Sy Keeler is one of my favorite singers and he’s at his best on this album. Great vocal lines, aggressive but melodic at the same time and his timbre is just perfect.

Honorable mentions:

Machine HeadUnto The Locust (2011)

RevocationChaos Of Forms (2011)

TriviumIn Waves (2011)

GojiraThe Way Of All Flesh (2008)

SlayerSouth Of Heaven (1988)

Eden Kupermintz

Published 6 years ago