Review Summary: The album that defines the new "thrash revival" in America.
There have only been a few releases this year that have struck me as awesome at first listen, one of those is Toxic Holocaust's latest album,
An Overdose of Death. Toxic Holocaust is the brainchild of Joel Grind who plays all the instruments in the band (except drums which were played by Donny Paycheck on this record) and provides the lead vocals. Toxic Holocaust play a unique style of thrash metal which combines fast, thrash riffs and drumming with black metal style vocals. Similar to Skeletonwitch only Toxic Holocaust is much more in vein of trash metal.
An Overdose of Death is the band's third album and their debut on Relapse Records. The signing to Relapse was one of the best moves for the band as it resulted in their new album having much better production, taking their sound to a whole new level.
Decent production was the one thing Toxic Holocaust needed to really take off and they got all that and more with
An Overdose of Death. It still has a raw sound, but it's more thick and robust sound as opposed to their first two albums which sound like they were recorded in someone's apartment. The vocals are more throaty and less raspy than the past which works very well for them. The guitar tone is absolutely outstanding and the bass isn't completely inaudible either. Pretty much everything has improved for the band in terms of production and overall sound.
The guitar riffs are killer, one of the strongest points on this album. They are heavy as hell and have a lot of old-school rock n' roll influence in them. Some of the riffs on this album are a bit more complex than most standard thrash but they are still very aggressive. Either way, it's impossible not to rock out to them. The drumming has also improved a lot. The addition of new session drummer, Donny Paycheck (Zeke) really helped out Toxic Holocaust. Paycheck matches the speed of the riffs and provides some excellent fills as well.
An Overdose of Death is one of the best metal albums of 2008, if not the best. It's a somewhat new sound for Toxic Holocaust but it's still straight-forward thrash metal for the most part. The band has improved in nearly every way possible. The production, the drumming, the riffs, the vocals and just their overall sound in general. Not one weak song on here, either. A great improvement for Toxic Holocaust. If you're a fan of thrash or metal in general, I recommend this album. It's almost the perfect album that defines the new "thrash revival" going on in America.
Favorite Tracks: War Is Hell, Wild Dogs, Gravelord, The Lord of the Wasteland
