Tag Archives: Thrash Metal

Friday Morning Metal – Zerre – Deception of the Weak

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Look over Zerre, it’s a Friday Morning Metal! This week it’s Deception of the Weak by Bavaria’s own Zerre. Encylopaedia Metallum says they got their start as a hardcore punk band before transitioning to thrash, and you can kinda tell the overlap. Apparently they don’t have themes. I would like to submit a theme: shred. Is shred a theme? I think it could be. It might lean more toward like… snowboard metal I guess, so I look forward to that.

A solid chugga melody starts the song off before the band kicks into full effect. The vocals are leaning a bit more toward hardcore than metal, but they fit in with the rest of the band’s vibe. The chorus has a great opportunity for the crowd to get in the mix. There’s also a couple solid breakdowns for those who enjoy headbanging. Dueling guitar solos from an explorer and flying V is how you know this is a great metal song. And dang the guy on the explorer shreds hard; very noodly, very fun. Clocking in just under 4 minutes, Zerre’s not wasting anyone’s time.

The video is a combo of a live performance and some additional footage of them shredding. LIVE! SIN! DIE! I guess that’s the deception of the weak. As opposed to April Fool’s Day, which is the deception of this week! Ha! I’m here all night folks.

Friday Morning Metal – Tankard – A Girl Called Cerveza

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Oooh Frankfurty thrash! This week we’re checking out A Girl Called Cerveza by Tankard. Bjørn keeps sharing various Tankard songs so it seemed like as good a time as any to get a video up in here. These guys have been around since 1982 (like me!) and are considered one of the Big Four of Teutonic Thrash. Much like bands that are 40 years old, there’s been some churn, but the original bassist and singer are still there kicking ass and taking names, so good on them for the longevity!

The song kicks off with some solid riffing before kicking into a solid chugga melody. It’s fun to hear a German guy pronounce cerveza as “serve-essa” almost like Vanessa maybe? The vocals fit well with the band, while the lyrics are about how this lady stole all his beer after getting him drunk. Poor guy. Nobody should get their beer supply taken. The solo is a frenetic and fantastic, but I can’t remember if it’s arpeggios or just very staccato. I should probably take some music theory classes if I’m going to keep writing about how rad these songs are.

The video is a combo of them shredding on the roof of a building and also the Girl Called Cerveza making metal faces while the singer paws at her. Then she kills the singer in a brewery! I think? Regardless, it looks like they’re having a hoot and a half, so give it a watch and enjoy!

Friday Morning Metal – Heathen – Dying Season

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Oooh more bay area thrash! This time it’s Heathen, who’ve been melting faces from 1984 to 1993, then 2001 until the end of time. They peddle in themes of Society, Politics, Religion, Death, and Dying Season is no different. But don’t get them confused with other Heathen bands from Pennsylvania and San Gabriel, who are both also metal bands. I bet if you pick a name like Heathen for your band, you’re kind of pigeon holed into a sound. Imagine a barbershop quartet going by Heathen. It’d be quite a shock.

The song starts with a kind of sitar-esque melody before diving headlong into dueling guitarmonies and big bombastic drums. The vocals have a good edge to them, and fit into the mix well. Which makes sense, this song may be 15 years old, but the band’s been around forever. Dueling guitar solos show off both of the guitarists’ chops about 2/3 of the way through the song, with another to close out the track. Very sweepy, very shreddy. 6 minutes of thrash is pretty good, and the song doesn’t seem to drag too hard or anything.

The video cuts between the band and a kinda cheesy look of a war movie perhaps with zombie soldiers. General zombie stopper looks like a bald MacArthur, sending soldiers off to battle. These poor guys get shredded by a bunker full of big machine guns, only to climb out of the earth a little later. And the one guy who manages to survive ends up meeting the zombies at the end. Poor guy! That would be a horrible fate, getting turned into a zombie soldier. I’d rather turn into a zombie professor, at zombie university. Or maybe zombie state, they’re less hifalutin there.

Friday Morning Metal – Kreator – Hail to the Hordes

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KREATOR! KREATOR! Happy Friday, please enjoy some badass thrash from Germany’s own Kreator. These guys have been shredding as long as I’ve been a person, so I have to imagine they have tinnitus and a sore back. Oooh their bassist is Frédéric Leclerq, which is one of the hockey-est names I’ve read in a while. Aside from a little part in the 90s, they’ve had the same drummer the whole time, which kinda pokes a hole in Spinal Tap’s claim that drummers explode randomly and frequently.

The song kicks off with some great dueling guitarmonies and big bombastic drumming before getting into gear. The drums are relentless, pushing the kind of tempo that would get a runner breaking land speed records. A double guitar solo of noodly proportions takes us into the final chorus. At four minutes and change, they don’t waste much time, but there’s enough breaks where I could see this being stretched out live for solos and crowd interaction and whatnot.

The video itself is a live show from 2017. You know it’s a good show when you see plenty of battle jackets and a teeming mass of a pit. I think they have pictures of family members blown up real huge behind them too. That’s sweet of them. It’s like they have giant Aura frames showing off their cheeky cousins and uncles and stuff. I dig that the vocalist sets his mic up similar to Lemmy, with it like pointing down at him from on high. Like he’s shouting at a giant.

Friday Morning Metal – Artillery – Turn up the Rage

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Danish thrash incoming! Today’s song is Turn up the Rage by Artillery. These guys have been thrashing about since 1982. But they also disbanded a few times. I think that happens when you run out of songs. You have to take a break to think up new ways to be metal. And since their reunion in 2007, they’ve been steadily pumping out the thrash. Apparently they shared rehearsal space with Mercyful Fate and Metallica, that’s gotta be a big loud room right there.

The song kicks off with the main riff, no intro needed, just straight up thrash. Their vocalist has been with the band since like 2013, and he’s pretty great, combining a solid growl with soaring vocal parts. The guitar solo halfway through provides a shreddy interlude before getting back to the main riff. There’s even a drum solo toward the end! You don’t hear those too often nowadays. Maybe at a live show, but not just stuffed into a song. It’s nice. The song’s about 4 minutes long, but they make the most of it. And the video ends showing off a beer that might have been for sale! All in all, it’s a pretty killer track. Which makes sense, these guys have been shredding for most of 43 years.

The video combines two things I dig: heavy metal and brewery equipment! There’s also some quick shots of a skeleton in a hoodie. I wonder if he’s the head brewer. He’s probably mad that they’re taking up space when he could be cleaning or something. And that’s turning up his rage. There’s also the guitarist who I thought was doing a lot of deep knee rock squats, but I think he might just be itty bitty.

Friday Morning Metal – Coroner – Renewal

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Happy Friday! Enjoy some thrash from Zürich’s own Coroner. These guys have been shredding since 1983, or 1985, depending on which lineup you consider the original Coroner vs Medical Examiner. The song today is Renewal, off their album Dissonance Theory. I hope they have a followup called Assonance Theory. That’d be pretty great. While the song is called Renewal, I don’t think the song is about those fancy Renewal by Andersen windows, though it might be.

The song is pretty badass. You can tell these guys have been shredding for nigh on 40 years. The song kicks off with bigass drums & guitars, catapulting you into an incredibly tight and frenetic experience. The solo 2/3 of the way into the song has some good shreddy noodles up in it, before pivoting to another kickass breakdown leading into the chorus. This would be great in a playlist for taking down drywall or chasing down your enemies in vengeance.

The video is primarily them playing in what looks like an abandoned villa or something, and then interspersed with someone writing while a clock is ticking. At first I thought the person was taking a test, maybe they were renewing their real estate license. But later on you see the person is drawing and whatnot, so maybe they didn’t pass the exam. The guitarist & bassist look equal parts angry and nonplussed, while the drummer looks like he’s having a hoot. If I were killing it on drums like he is in this song, I’d probably make the same faces. Or do the point one stick at the camera while using the other. A band I used to see a lot had a drummer who did that, especially when they’d play Bastard Gas.

Friday Morning Metal – Annihilator – Armed to the Teeth

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Oooh Canadian thrash! Annihilator has been shredding faces since 1984 and Bjørn thought I should listen to King of The Kill yet again, so I went and found a more recent song to share. This week it’s Armed to the Teeth, off the 2020 album Ballistic, Sadistic.

The song kicks off with a pretty standard chugga riff before kicking into gear. You can tell these guys have been thrashing about for 40+ years, they’re really tight. Even if only one guy is left from the original band. They do have some kickass flying V’s. Gotta have some of those if you want to shred. The solos are pretty shreddy, looks a bit more like finger tappy and shaking the guitar to get cool tones out of it. There’s also a solid shift when the girl is about to whip ass. Plus some evil thrash metal laughs. All in all it’s a pretty solid track and would fit in when pumping iron, mowing the lawn, or changing the oil in your Iroc-Z.

The video highlights a teeny bopper girl who looks like she’s walking to school when a couple of nutsacks with dumb chin pubes bully her and steal her wallet. She also looks kinda like she could be the younger sister of Ursula from Super Troopers. So she goes to Youtube to learn how to beat ass and then beats their asses. Later on she gets a bat and smacks them around more. Moral of the story, don’t grow chin pubes if you’re blond. Also don’t be a bully, you guys. It’s interspersed with clips of the band playing in front of, but not on top of, a mesa. The lead guy has a borderline Zangief mohawk which is pretty rad. He also likes to make crazy faces during his solos. Apparently he’s been with the band since inception, that’s pretty rad. Doesn’t look 40 years older than when they started. I wonder what his secret is.

Friday Morning Metal – Vindicator – Thirst for Violence

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Vindicator Vindicator! Vindicator! Vindicator! They’ve got a new album coming out, and this is one of the tracks from said album! WHOAH OH OH, THIRST FOR VIOLENCE! These guys have been melting faces since 2005 and are not to be confused with Glen Burnie, Maryland’s Vindicator. Nor Northern California’s Vindicator. And definitely not Vyndykator from Jersey City, New Jersey. Maybe they don’t teach spelling in Jersey City. Who am I to judge.

True to form the song is frenetic and kicks you in the rocks from the get go. The vocals are a bit growlier than I remember, a bit more like Darkthrone, which is interesting and fits over the rest of the band well. They have a couple bits early on where there’s maybe heavy guitar syncopation and it causes an interesting sense of unease, at least for me. It wasn’t something I was expecting in the song, and I remember a professor teaching pop music history saying that’s important. So they did the important thing! The solo around the halfway point is quick but noodly and dueling and very fun. And then ANOTHER very noodly double solo! At 6 and a half minutes long, it does feel like it could be truncated or segmented. But what would thrash metal be without 6+ minute long shred fests. I guess it’d be speed metal.

The video is an “Official Visualizer” which I guess means the song is on top of stock footage of wars and stuff. Plus some wolves fighting over what appears to be a dead rabbit. If your music is fast and aggressive, I guess that’s what the visualization of it would be. Oooh and a big fat snake! Personally I would’ve liked to see some session or live footage interspersed with the visualizer but that probably is difficult to do. At least it wasn’t AI slop, am I right?

Oh also here’s why I said Vindicator so much.

Friday Morning Metal – Phantom – The Tower of Seth

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Coming from Guadalajara and ready to shred your face off, it’s Phantom! This is The Tower of Seth, off their album Tyrants of Wrath. That’s a good album title right there. Also I had a buddy in high school named Seth who was really tall. He’s not the subject of the song, despite being a towering fella. These guys play the kind of speed/thrash metal that would fit right in as opener for Anthrax or Metallica.

The song has a good chuggy intro, giving vibes of early Metallica or 3 Inches of Blood’s Metal Woman. The intro having separate channels for lead/rhythm guitar is pretty fun, makes it feel like you’re in the middle of the band. It’s too bad the vocals are tuned down so much in the mix. It does give the rest of the band an opportunity to shine, but it also makes it sound like the singer is way in the back like “HEY GUYS I’M HERE TOO.” Maybe they mistook the vocal track for bass. There’s a pretty killer solo leading up to the video’s climax, plenty chuggy and throwback-adjacent. All in all, a really solid speedy metal song.

The video takes place out in the woods. It’s fun to see the drumsticks kind of get that rubber pencil vibe while he’s playing, I haven’t seen that before in a video. The band is playing in a stream which can’t be too comfortable, but then it’s interspersed with some like druids walking by a water treatment plant and a guy in a cape. Our caped crusader seems to be on a mission to take out a black metal band, or the druids. Except the druids have magic and summon Celtic Frost to fight him. Sadly, despite being from the band Phantom, we don’t see any Ben Affleck nor Billy Zane, he’s a cool guy.

Friday Morning Metal – Game Over – Lust for Blood

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GAME OVER MAN! Here’s some thrash from Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna Italy. These guys have been shredding since 2008 and it’s only now that Bjørn thinks to share them with me. I guess he’s gotta hold back some or he’ll run out of good stuff. Regardless, these guys are pretty solid and thrashy. According to Encyclopaedia Metallum, their themes are horror movies and social issues.

The song is a single off their upcoming album Face the End, and kicks off with some bigass drums and chuggy guitar intros. There are some fun lyrical choices, like “Get busy living or get busy dead.” Dueling guitar solos with some back to back rocking is a great way to round out the song. In general, it’s a pretty kickass song with solid vocals that fit really well with everything else.

The video is split between performance and a dude in a pig mask chasing a metal lady. I think he has a lust for blood that backfires by the end. He does seem kinda creepy, but there’s also a fun bit where the pig guy gets a side ache. Reminded me of when I used that as a bit in a ResTek short like 20 some years ago. So thrash it up and chase down the creepy pig man!