Adeleaide’s Truth Corroded have long been one of the most respected names in Australian metal. Yet, although they’ve been putting out brilliant releases since the early years of the new millennium, they’ve never achieved the same level of exposure or international acclaim as many of their peers. All that has…
So far on this column, I’ve referred to a lot of the heavy hitters of the subgenre. I personally have a lot more thoughts about them because there’s just a lot more material to go through with them. It’s the same for people who are really into Shakespeare. There’s just…
Due to the way we’ve decided to divide up the time zones, correspondence with an international audience from the humble southern continent of Australia often feels akin to looking into the past. Yet, despite this perceived futurism, Australian culture often trails its American and European counterparts by some distance. So it is that, while the northern thrash revival has come and (more-or-less) gone, the Australian metal scene is currently experiencing the biggest genre boom it has undergone since thrash metal originally emerged in the mid ‘80s. Back then, we brought our own quality acts to the fold, most notably in the form(s) of Mortal Sin and Hobbs Angel of Death, and the Allegiance in the ’90s. Yet, while the style had effectively remained dormant since then, the last five-to-ten years have seen an explosion in the amount of world-class thrash metal bands to have emerged from these southern shores.
Whenever your band starts with the longtime bassist of Napalm Death (Shane Embury) and the vocalist from Brutal Truth (Kevin Sharp) it’s a fairly safe bet that you’re in for some serious grindcore. Add a drummer who has worked with Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir (Nick Barker), stir with a heaping helping of guitar from Chile’s Pentagram and Criminal (Anton Reisenegger) and you have the latest incarnation of grind supergroup, Lock Up. This crew brings us their latest onslaught, Demonization.
Iron Reagan is made up of the singer and bassist from Municipal Waste, Darkest Hour’s old drummer, and DRI’s Crossover DNA. Then again, if you’re at all familiar with the thrash revival scene then you probably already know that about this band. And you can probably take a healthy guess about what their latest album on Relapse, Crossover Ministry, sounds like. All hints of predictability aside this is a rollicking throwback to the heyday of thrash when bands like Testament, Exodus, Forbidden, and so many others were as likely to be found shredding guitars and skateboards as digging themselves out of the pit.
For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as…
