On the 25th day of the 12th month of 2012, the Six-Tongued Hellgoat was summoned to arise from the ashes and bring darkness to this place called Popdose. Join him in his quest.
Ritual Thrust into the Profane Maw of Churning Filth
Album: Havok, Unnatural Selection
Label: Candlelight
Release: June 25, 2013
Genre: Thrash
Rating: 9.5/10
In 2011, The Hellgoat labeled these Denver, Colorado thrashers as the best Thrash band on the planet, so clearly they have a lot to live up to every time a new Havok song hits the Hellgoat’s very sensitive ears. So let’s not mix words here…Havok once again lives up to that proclamation.
Havok is one of the very few bands today that have beat the retro-thrash movement and continue to make both great and still innovative music long after the creative well dried up for the majority of bands in the vein. It really has to do with the players more than anything else. These dudes are young, exciting and after nine years on the scene, still seem like they know how to write a tune. Each member shines in his own right, David Sanchez has a great voice for Thrash as he can alternate between singing and screaming without sounding too nasally. Reece Scruggs has some serious licks throughout the record and can solo with the best of them. New bassist Michael Leon throws down this groovy ass bass line in “It Is True” but I think a lot of the credit has to go to drummer Pete Webber. Webber’s energy behind the kit is evident on all the tracks and some of the sounds he makes are pretty damn amazing. A song like “Chasing the Edge” showcases both his ability to maintain a standard backbeat and also mix in some creativity and speed for a bit of a different sound. The Hellgoat thinks it’s time to take note of this dude and start throwing him in best drummer lists!.
All around, Unnatural Selection is fantastic from the first single “Give Me Liberty…Or Give Me Death” to the razor sharp riffs of “Worse Than War” and even the inclusion of a damn fine cover of Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave.” The Hellgoat still feels that 2011’s Time Is Up is the thrash album of the still young decade but together these make a fucking brilliant duo of headbanging metal.
http://youtu.be/eLDdvV_c1I8
Somnolent Regurgitation of the Scrolls of Proselytism
(The Hellgoat wishes to convert you to the ways of the metal. But he prefers to let the press release and bio do most of the talking on these nefarious black circles.)
Album: All Pigs Must Die, Nothing Violates This Nature
Label: Southern Lord
Release: July 23, 2013
Genre: Hardcore
Press: After a stretch of silence since the Winter recording sessions of the anticipated follow-up to their enraged 2011-released God Is War, months of planning and plotting on every front of the All Pigs Must Die camp have gone into the creation of this quartet’s newest and most damaging new works yet; a ten-anthem declaration of disdain the band has dubbed Nothing Violates This Nature. While holding true to what the band is known for, on the new album APMD has obviously honed some new methods to their attack, merging some more calmly delivered protocols of execution with some of their most oppositely unhinged and violent rampages yet on this album. As with God Is War, the crushing Nothing Violates This Nature was recorded at Godcity with Kurt Ballou (Converge) and mastered at Audiosiege by Brad Boatright (From Ashes Rise), maximizing All Pigs Must Die’s deafening aggression.
The Hellgoat’s Take (8.5/10): Nothing Violates This Nature’s calmer parts are certainly different than the all out chaos of God Is War. However, there are some total freak-outs that rival anything they’ve done to date. The Hellgoat isn’t quite sure the step forward to add a little something different in the mix really worked as well as it could have though as he still prefers the all out balls-to-the-wall tunes like “Holy Plague.” It’s still a pretty killer record but isn’t quite a strikingly in your face as God Is War was.
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