EP Review: "Possession" by Overt Enemy

Possession

Thrash metal is a genre of music that, if you ask me, has kind of been done to death. Meaning, all of the territory has been explored.

How often do I hear a thrash record that really takes me there, back,and forward?

It almost never happens anymore. It happens so infrequently that more often than not, I ignore all new thrash bands.

It's a sad state of affairs to me. Thrash/Speed (whatever) was the third wave of metal and that wave took metal in to strange new places.

Overt Enemy though?

They found somewhere they could take the genre of music. It isn't Neo Thrash, or any other cute title, but it's a new take.

Maybe that's not entirely true, but Overt Enemy has breathed life into an older style. It's never about being the fasted or the heaviest. Skwisgaar Skwigelf wouldn't find a home here.

It's not about being the heaviest and most brutal, Nathan Explosion also would be on the outs, but it's about writing a killer song and crushing your enemies and wearing their entrails as a necklace.

RELEASE 8/9/19 BANDCAMP FACEBOOK

LP Review: "Anonymous Souls" by Manifestic

Anonymous Souls

During the election cycle of 2016,when Fake News from the Right Wing became the real news of the day, someone said to me, you listen to all this underground music, but you /only consume mainstream media.

Well, I could go into the reasons behind both the former and the latter example in that statement, but for now, let's just stick with music.

Mainstream Music is mean to be all things to all people. Humans have such wide differences in taste that Metallica had to dull their edges to go supernova.

Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd though, they're the exceptions.

One of my favorite underground labels is Punishment 18. They put it out on the table. Thrash metal is their bread and butter. Now, Germany's Maifestic, is a bit different. They're not your father's thrash. Unless you're dad is around my age, no, still true.

From the onset of the album, the men from the German Ruhr show two sides of what they're doing. Every song has a foot in the old school and another foot heading into a new idea and a new plane of existence for the longest running heavy metal sub-genre.

Definitely, get in on this one.

3/29/19 

Video: "FFF (False Flag Flying)" by Aftermath

It's a rare time when one can enjoy both progressive music and thrash metal at the same time. Chicago's Aftermath is able to do that.

In advance of their new album, There Is Something Wrong, the Chicagoans have released this lyric video. Check it out below.

In the mean time FACEBOOK and you can preorder on all major digital outlets.

Album Review: "Eternal Oblivion" by Moonlight Prophecy

Yngwie Malmsteen may have popularized the genre of the neoclassical guitar shred fest, but he wasn't the last guitarist to ascend to such lofty heights.
Malmsteen was Swedish, which should come as a surprise no one familiar with that country's uncanny ability to produce legendary rock musicians.  However, the latest in the line of six string wizard's is Philadelphia's own Lawrence Wallace.  Wallace's latest project is one man band Moonlight Prophecy.
Wallace seamlessly blends classical music inspired guitar playing with the aggressive melodies of modern thrash metal with stunning results. This is what I imagine it would sound like if Dragonforce's Herman Li joined Testament. Blazing melodic solos over aggressive thrash metal riffs.