Review Summary: Laaz Rockit shift to a more technical sound and successfully create one of the strongest contenders for their best album.
Laaz Rockit aren't exactly the most well know Californian thrash band of the 80s and early 90s, but are still generally recognized as a good band. Starting off with the lackluster City's Gonna Burn, the band hit a fairly rapid ascent course in both quality and success, releasing thrash successes such as Know Your Enemy, Annihilation Principle, and lastly Nothing'$ $acred. The latter pair are generally considered the band's best albums and great thrash albums in their own right, and while Annihilation Principle generally gets a bit more attention,
Nothing'$ $acred is just as strong, if not more-so.
The technical proficiency of Laaz Rockit is more evident on this album, as the guitars of Aaron Jellum and Scott Sargeant easily sail through fast and technical riffs, as well as excellent guitar solos that demonstrate the band's capacity for melody and shred. Jon Torres's bass work is strong and easily audible as he also throws in some good fills here and there, while drummer Dave Chavarri is intricate and tight with his parts. Vocalist Michael Coons is solid as always, with his moderate vocal range and thrash shouts proving more than adequate for the album's various pieces.
The album opens with the awesome tracks
In The Name Of The Father And The Gun and
Into The Asylum, both of which demonstrate the band's superior technical prowess this time around as the bands flies through fast and technical riffs and song structures.
Green Machine provides some superior groove while sacrificing little of the technicality of the previous two songs.
Curiosity Kills provides some lightning fast riffing as well as some solid groove, while navigating a harmonized solo section that demonstrates the shred-ability factor of the band in great form.
The Enemy Within thrashes along with a set of excellent riffs while Coons demonstrates the upper end of his vocal range, while
Nobody's Child provides the obligatory thrash ballad, in which Torres does some excellent bass parts (including a short fretless bass part at the beginning of the track) before yet another brilliant guitar solo. The closing instrumental
Necropolis just further demonstrates the technical ability of the band without detracting from the song in any way.
It's actually quite difficult to find real faults with this album, but I guess one issue may be the number of tracks relative to the distinctiveness of each. While the first few tracks are nice and distinctive from the rest of the album the latter ones don't quite distinguish themselves so well (which isn't necessarily a problem because they're all pretty great on the whole). This may also give the album a bit of a top heavy feel, though it isn't too dramatic as none of the tracks on the ending stages of the album are much worse than the ones earlier on.
It's a little surprising to see that this album receives quite so little attention since it's excellent throughout, with above strong songwriting and exceptional instrumentation. If you like thrash and technical music (or even just good guitar solos), check it out.
Recommended Tracks:
Into The Asylum
In The Name Of The Father And The Gun
The Enemy Within
Nobody's Child
Curiosity Kills
Green Machine
